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. 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.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 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. 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.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
