Norwegian authorities have arrested the Russian vessel Professor Molchanov in Svalbard following a $4.22 billion claim by Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz. The Nord-Troms and Senja District Court issued the detention order on August 31, 2026, prohibiting the expedition ship from leaving the port of Barentsburg.
Naftogaz requested the arrest to secure the enforcement of an international arbitral award against the Russian Federation. The award requires Russia to pay approximately $4.22 billion, plus interest and legal costs, as compensation for the illegal seizure of Naftogaz Group assets during the annexation of Crimea.
Under the terms of the court ruling, the vessel is forbidden from departing its current location at the port of Barentsburg on the Svalbard archipelago. Norwegian authorities are managing the situation regarding passengers who were on board the ship when the detention order was issued.
The Professor Molchanov is owned by the Russian Federation and is used commercially to conduct expedition cruises in polar waters.
Enforcement of arbitral award
Naftogaz announced the arrest of the vessel in an official statement released by its press service. Serhiy Fedorenko, the acting chairman of the board of Naftogaz, said the court ruling represented another important step toward restoring justice for the company.
Fedorenko stated that Naftogaz would continue to search for Russian state assets across the globe until the full compensation awarded to Naftogaz and other companies within the group was paid in full.
In the Norwegian legal proceedings, Naftogaz is represented by the Norwegian law firm Wikborg Rein alongside international legal counsel Covington & Burling LLP.
Background to Crimean dispute
Naftogaz is Ukraine's state-owned national oil and gas company, headquartered in Kyiv. The company suffered major financial losses when Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula in March 2014, seizing oil and gas infrastructure, offshore drilling platforms, and energy production assets belonging to Naftogaz subsidiaries in the Black Sea.
In 2023, an arbitration tribunal in The Hague awarded Naftogaz more than $5 billion in compensation for the expropriation of its assets in Crimea. A French court recognized and authorized the enforcement of the arbitral award in 2025.
Following that ruling, Naftogaz registered legal encumbrances on Russian state assets in France with a total value exceeding 120 million euros.
Global asset recovery efforts
The arrest in Norway is part of a broader international campaign by Naftogaz to collect on the arbitration judgment against Russia. In 2024, a court in Helsinki placed an arrest on tens of millions of dollars worth of Russian state assets located in Finland.
The latest court order targets Russian state property in Svalbard, a remote Arctic archipelago under Norwegian sovereignty. Barentsburg is a Russian coal-mining settlement on Spitsbergen, the largest island in Svalbard, where Russian state entities maintain commercial and shipping operations under a 1920 treaty governing the territory.
