Norway sent 69 stranded Russians home and kept their ship under arrest for Ukraine
The vessel stays tied up in a Russian settlement on Svalbard while Kyiv's state gas company works to collect a compensation award.
On September 2nd, a Norwegian court ordered the seizure of the Professor Molchanov, a Russian expedition cruise ship that had brought 69 Russian citizens to Svalbard. The ship remains under arrest at Barentsburg, one of two Russian settlements on the Arctic archipelago, on behalf of Ukraine's state energy company Naftogaz. Naftogaz is seeking a $4.22 billion compensation award for assets taken by Russia when it annexed Crimea in 2014.
The Russian government considers the seizure piracy and plans to appeal. Ukraine aims to convert court judgments into money, but the challenge lies in finding Russian property that can be seized. Each attachment in a third country sets a precedent, making Russian state property abroad vulnerable rather than secure. As the passengers departed on September 8th via Kirkenes, a northern Norwegian border town, the ship remained under arrest.
The dispute highlights the complexities of enforcing court orders across borders and the potential implications for international relations.
Written by urgent.news from Euromaidan Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
