Norway detains Russian ship in Svalbard due to Naftogaz court order

Since Wednesday, Norway has detained the Russian ship Professor Molchanov in Barenstburg, a settlement controlled by Russia in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, at the request of the Ukrainian oil company Naftogaz. It is the first time that the Oslo authorities have carried out a measure of this type on the remote islands under Norwegian sovereignty, as the governor of Svalbard himself has acknowledged. The court order seeks to force the collection of compensation of 4,220 million dollars (3,632 million euros) that an arbitration court in The Hague ordered Russia to pay in 2023, for the expropriation of the oil company's assets in Crimea, after the Russian annexation of the peninsula in 2014.

The 71-meter oceanographic vessel, managed by the Russian state company Arktikugol and normally used in marine expeditions, had docked on Tuesday in Barenstsburg with a group of Russian scientists and passengers on board. A day later, police officers came on board to notify the captain of the resolution of the Nord-Troms District Court, issued on August 31 in favor of the Ukrainian company.

The governor of Svalbard, Lars Fause, has described to the Norwegian media High North News his role as that of an intermediary: "Our task was to read the decision to the captain; we acted as messengers." He has clarified that neither he nor the Norwegian State are part of the litigation. The ship remains moored in Barentsburg until its fate is judicially decided.

This Friday, Russia described the seizure as an "act of piracy", summoned the Norwegian ambassador in Moscow and demanded the immediate release of the ship. Vladimir Putin himself had warned in August that he would respond “in the same way” if any European country seized Russian merchant ships.

Naftogaz has been immersed in litigation against Russia since 2016, after the seizure of its assets in Crimea. After the Hague ruling and the Russian refusal to pay, the company has been locating and pursuing Russian assets wherever it has found judicial support. “Russia cannot evade its responsibility by refusing to comply with an international arbitration award,” the company's acting executive director, Sergii Fedorenko, declared to the Ukrainian media The Kyiv Independent.

The Ministry of Justice has also stressed that Oslo is not a party to the litigation and has limited itself to executing a judicial resolution. However, the measure is part of an increasingly firm Norwegian policy towards the Russian presence in the archipelago, with more controls and restrictions in recent years against the Russian "ghost fleet".

The operation has been possible despite the unique legal regime of the archipelago (3,000 inhabitants). The Treaty of Svalbard of 1920 recognized Norwegian sovereignty over the islands, but granted many signatory countries to the agreement, including Russia, the freedom to settle on the island and develop mining, commercial and scientific activities, without the need for a visa. Under the protection of that treaty, Russia founded the mining colonies of Barenstburg and Pyramiden a century ago, where today about 400 people, mostly Russians, reside.