Norway Repatriates 69 Russians After Arresting Research Vessel in Svalbard

Norwegian authorities have assisted in the repatriation of 69 Russian nationals from the research vessel Professor Molchanov, which was arrested in Svalbard last week on a request from Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz.

In 2023, Naftogaz won a $4.2 billion international arbitral award against Russian state gas giant Gazprom in connection with the seizure of Ukrainian energy assets during the Russian occupation of Crimea. Gazprom declined to pay, and Naftogaz has been taking action to recover damages through asset seizures ever since.

In connection with this asset-recovery program, Naftogaz filed suit for the Professor Molchanov's arrest with Norwegian courts in 2025 and secured a positive approval. On September 2, a court issued an order to impound the vessel and passed the instruction on to the governor of Svalbard, Lars Fause. The Molchanov regularly calls at Barentsburg, the Russian coal-mining outpost on Svalbard, and it was detained on arrival. The governor's office took responsibility for the care of the passengers and arranged with Russian officials to have them repatriated.

Alexey Chekunkov, the Russian minister for Arctic development, called the detention "illegal" and said that his office would be working for the vessel's release.

Professor Molchanov is a Finnish-built, ice-classed research vessel built in 1983 for a soviet operator. The ship was converted for passenger operations and served as a platform for expedition cruises under a boutique Dutch brand for some years. More recently it appears to have returned to Russian service, and a Russian reporter aboard the vessel described the passengers as "scientists." In its arrest order, the Norwegian court ruled that Molchanov was not in fact operating as a government science vessel, but as a commercial expedition cruise vessel. (Russian state outlet TASS confirms that it had been conducting cargo and passenger runs to and from Svalbard since mid-2025.)

Svalbard is governed under a 1920 treaty that gives citizens of Russia the right to settle in the archipelago and to conduct economic activity there, and in Russia the seizure of the Molchanov has been interpreted as a way to interfere with these rights. In a charged geopolitical environment - freighted with active conflict in Ukraine and espionage in Western Europe - Moscow views the arrest of the Molchanov as a political decision taken by the Norwegian government, not as a straightforward civil suit. This week, top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov responded to a question about the vessel arrest by quoting President Vladimir Putin, who warned last week that any country that tries to impede Russia will "get hit in the teeth."