Norwegian courts seize Russian ship Professor Molchanov in Svalbard to enforce Naftogaz compensation claim

Norwegian courts have ordered the seizure of a Russian ship in the Arctic to enforce part of a $4.22 billion (roughly €3.6 billion) compensation claim won by Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz after Moscow's seizure of its assets in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

Officials announced that the ship had been stopped from departing the port in the Russian coal mining settlement of Barentsburg in the Svalbard archipelago late on Wednesday.

Svalbard has been Norwegian territory since 1925 but is a demilitarized zone where people from dozens of countries, Russia included, can settle without visas under certain conditions.

Russia's ambassador to Norway said that Moscow would pursue the ship's release through legal channels.

What do we know about the Professor Molchanov ship being impounded?

The first group to announce the ship's seizure was Covington, the US law firm representing Naftogaz as it tries to secure the compensation awarded to it by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in 2023.

Russia had refused to pay the fine plus legal fees and interest amid its ongoing war with Ukraine, and Naftogaz has since begun trying to secure the seizure and forced sale of Russian commercial assets via local courts instead.

"Russia cannot evade ​responsibility simply by refusing to comply with an international arbitral award," said Naftogaz acting CEO Sergii Fedorenko.

Covington said it had been tracking the ship, the Professor Molchanov, for months. It said its application was approved on Monday by the Nord-Troms and Senja District Court, which ordered Svalbard's governor to ensure the ship stayed in dock once it arrived.

The Svalbard governor's office later issued a statement confirming that the ship had been seized and would be held in Svalbard.

"The governor will take care of the crew and passengers on board the vessel in collaboration with Trust Arktikugol," it said, referring to the Russian enterprise (meaning "Arctic Coal") that administers the Barentsburg mining settlement.

Norway's Justice Ministry, meanwhile, said the issue did not directly concern the government in Oslo.

"Russia can demand that ​the district court reassess the case," the Justice ‌Ministry said.

How did Russia respond?

Russia's ambassador to Norway, Nikolai Korchunov, said in a statement on Thursday that Moscow would pursue the ship's release through legal channels.

"We insist on the immediate release of the vessel and on ensuring the safety of its passengers and crew," he said.

The Kremlin also summoned Norway's ambassador in Moscow to lodge a formal complaint.

The Professor Molchanov, a repurposed research vessel, arrived in Barentsburg on Tuesday with a party of Russian scientists, according to a journalist who was accompanying them.

"The seizure has had no impact on the expedition participants or the ship's crew. No one has been arrested. We are all going about our business as usual," Andrei Gorbunov, editor-in-chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP) radio wrote on KP's website.

He said that for the time being, "the Professor Molchanov is simply forbidden from leaving the port of Barentsburg," adding it was unclear how long this would remain the case.

What is behind Svalbard's special status, and why is it home to the Barentsburg settlement?

Svalbard is an archipelago well to the north of mainland Norway in the Arctic Circle, sparsely populated and thought to be home to slightly fewer than 3,000 people.

It was a whaling base in the 17th and 18th centuries and became a coal mining site at the beginning of the 20th century.

The territory was recognized as part of Norway in 1925, but only after the 1920 establishment of an international treaty — which nowadays has dozens of signatories — designating the area a demilitarized zone where anybody from a signatory state was permitted to settle and work without a visa, provided they met certain conditions.

The Soviet Union eventually acquired three sites and developed them as company towns: Barentsburg, with a remnant population of around 300 mostly Russian nationals, the nearly-abandoned settlement of Pyramiden, and Grumant, which has been left as a ghost town for decades.

Tourism has become a growth industry on the stark but stunning polar archipelago.

Edited by: Zac Crellin