Why the Professor Molchanov remains held in Barentsburg

The Russian ship Professor Molchanov stays under arrest in Barentsburg after a district court on Wednesday 28 October turned down a request from Arktikugol, the Russian state coal company in Barentsburg, to lift it. The ship has been held there since 2 September.

The ship is held for a debt claimed from the Russian state. A Ukrainian company, Naftogaz, won an arbitration award against Russia and is seizing Russian property in Norway to collect it. The ship carried passengers between Murmansk and Barentsburg, and in court the case has also become an argument about the settlement's supplies.

What the court decided this week

The Nord-Troms and Senja District Court (Nord-Troms og Senja tingrett) found that Arktikugol has no right to have the case heard, NRK reported. Arktikugol had the ship on charter until 15 October and does not own it, the Barents Observer reported. The judges pointed to Russia as the original defendant, and Russia itself can still ask for the arrest to be lifted, both outlets wrote. The court ordered Arktikugol to pay the winning side's costs of NOK 2,882,000 within two weeks.

The two outlets' reports of the ruling describe no decision on the arguments the parties made about the Svalbard Treaty, state immunity or Barentsburg's supplies. Those arguments are set out below.

Herman Steen, the lawyer for Naftogaz, told NRK that Naftogaz had won outright and would keep using every legal step available to collect what it is owed. No comment on the ruling from Russia or Arktikugol had been reported by 29 October.

Why the ship was arrested

In 2023 an arbitration tribunal in The Hague ordered Russia to pay Naftogaz $4.22 billion, plus interest and costs, for assets Russia took in Crimea in 2014, Reuters reported. Russia has said it does not recognise the tribunal's jurisdiction. NRK reported on 10 September that Russia had brought a case to have the award declared invalid, and that the case had not been finally decided.

The district court granted Naftogaz the right to seize the ship on 31 August. The Governor of Svalbard (Sysselmesteren), as enforcement authority, arrested it in Barentsburg on Wednesday 2 September. The ship is an oceanographic research vessel operated by a directorate of Roshydromet, the Russian state meteorological service.

The ship is one of several Russian assets Naftogaz has pursued. The Barents Observer reported on 22 October, citing VG, that the Oslo District Court (Oslo tingrett) had allowed it to seize five Russian-owned properties in Oslo, and that 62 snowmobiles and 15 cars on Svalbard had been seized. Citing Dagens Næringsliv, it reported that Russki Dom in Longyearbyen, used by Arktikugol's travel agency Grumant, had been seized. Naftogaz's lawyers put the total claim at NOK 57 billion (about €5.5 billion) with interest and costs, NTB reported.

Barentsburg and the ship

The ship first sailed to Barentsburg in June 2025, and 2026 was its second season. It was planned to make 10 return trips between Murmansk and Barentsburg this year, according to the Barents Observer and the Russian news site www1.ru. In March www1.ru reported that Arktikugol operates the line and that the ship carries cargo for the Russian settlements as well as passengers. The author Per Arne Totland said at a book talk at Svalbard Museum on 27 October that a planned Russian science centre in Pyramiden needed the ship.

Before the direct sailings, Russians travelling to Svalbard flew through Tromsø or Oslo, which needs a Schengen visa and Norwegian passport control, the Barents Observer reported. Since Norway ended tourist visas for Russians, only people linked to Arktikugol could get transit visas, it said.

After the arrest, the next planned voyage was cancelled, Delovoy Peterburg reported on 4 September, citing an unnamed source. On 8 September the Governor said it had helped 69 Russian citizens who were to have sailed on the ship return to Russia through Kirkenes, working with the Russian consul general in Barentsburg and Arktikugol. Arktikugol told Delovoy Peterburg it was assessing the damage and taking steps to protect its legal interests.

The arguments

Supplies. At the hearing on 19 October, Arktikugol's lawyer Arnt Angell said the company and the people of Barentsburg and Pyramiden were hit financially by the arrest, and that the other supply lines were expensive and limited, also because of the geopolitical situation, NRK reported. The Russian Embassy in Oslo and Arktikugol have said the ship supplies Barentsburg. The Barents Observer reported that it has not played a significant role, and that other cargo ships bring the settlement's food, fuel and machinery. Steen argued that Arktikugol had not produced evidence that the ship is a critical supply line.

On 18 September the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Justis- og beredskapsdepartementet) adopted a regulation that limits the seizure of assets in, or on their way to, Svalbard's communities when they are needed to keep those communities running. The ministry said supply lines to some communities on Svalbard were more exposed than on the mainland. Frank Lynum, a ministry spokesperson, said the regulation would not affect the arrest of the Professor Molchanov.

The Svalbard Treaty. On 3 September Russia's foreign ministry called in Norway's ambassador, Heidi Olufsen. It said Norwegian restrictions on Svalbard aimed at Russia breached international law and the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, and that Russians on the archipelago were in effect under a blockade. Angell told the court that Arktikugol, as a state-owned company, can invoke the treaty in a dispute between states. Steen argued that the arrest does not breach the treaty.

State immunity. Russia has said the ship has state immunity as a Roshydromet vessel, and Naftogaz has pointed to its commercial use, Polar Journal reported.

Norway's role. Norway's government said Norway was not a party to the dispute, that the Governor only enforced the court's order and that Russia could ask the court to review the case, Reuters and Polar Journal reported. Nikolai Korchunov, Russia's ambassador to Norway, called the arrest a politically motivated violation of international law. On 3 September, the day after the arrest, the moderator at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok told President Vladimir Putin that Russian assets were under attack, "even the Professor Molchanov", and asked about the prospects for peace talks. Putin replied that "the hijacking of civilian ships, the attacks on civilian merchant vessels that you brought up" and threats to attack civilian aircraft were "a manifestation of state terrorism", according to the Kremlin's transcript. He did not name the ship himself. After the ruling, RIA Novosti recalled that the foreign ministry's spokeswoman had called it a well-planned operation to limit Russia's presence.

What happens next

Arktikugol has two weeks from the ruling to pay the costs, the Barents Observer reported. Russia can ask for the arrest to be lifted. RIA Novosti reported that an official at the district court said Arktikugol can take the case to a Norwegian court of appeal. The district court has ruled that the ship cannot be sold by force until Russia has presented its side, NRK reported.

Euro figure at Norges Bank's rate of 30 October 2026 (EUR 1 = NOK 10.312).