Empowered by an international court order, Norway captured the vessel as part of a global effort to seize Russian assets. The Russians called it “piracy.”
By Jeffrey GettlemanLynsey ChutelLouise Krüger and Henrik Pryser Libell
Louise Krüger and Henrik Pryser Libell reported from Oslo, Norway.
For the past several days, Norwegian security services had been tracking a Russian research ship.
It was cruising around Svalbard, an icy archipelago high in the Arctic near the North Pole that Norway controls but is governed by a one-of-a-kind treaty that gives the Russians access.
Armed with a court order that is part of a global effort to recover Russian assets, Norwegian police officers boarded the ship while it was docked in Barentsburg, a tiny Russian outpost in Svalbard. The officers confronted the captain of the ship, a somewhat clunky, 200-foot-long oceanographic vessel, and announced that they were “arresting” it.
The seized ship was part of a broader effort to enforce an international court judgment ordering Russia to pay a Ukrainian energy company, Naftogaz, more than $4 billion for expropriating that company’s assets in Crimea. The ship, owned by the Russian government and called Professor Molchanov, after a famous Russian scientist, is now prohibited from leaving Barentsburg until Norwegian courts decide what to do next.
“We have only acted as a messenger,” said Lars Fause, the governor of Svalbard.
He added that it was the first time Norway had taken action like this in Svalbard. The Russians quickly denounced it, with the foreign ministry spokeswoman calling it “piracy.” But the bold move fits neatly with the shifting geopolitics in this part of the Arctic and Norway’s increasingly aggressive stance.
For years, Svalbard was a collegial place, remote and often bone-chillingly cold. But it was one where Russians, Norwegians and people from all over the world went snowmobiling together, scouted polar bears and slurped borscht at chess tournaments. Svalbard’s remoteness and extreme northern latitude — it stretches as far as 81 degrees north — make it an ideal place to study climate change and Earth’s atmosphere.
The cluster of islands is part of Norway but governed by a unique treaty, dating from the aftermath of World War I, that allows just about anyone to take up a life there, visa free. The Russians used this treaty to set up a few coal-mining towns decades ago, including Barentsburg, and a few hundred Russians still live there and dig coal. For years, the Norwegians basically left them alone.
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