{"id":1041160,"date":"2026-09-03T17:03:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T17:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1041160\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T17:03:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T17:03:18","slug":"norway-seizes-russian-vessel-in-svalbard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1041160\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway seizes Russian vessel in Svalbard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OSLO, Norway (AP) \u2014 Norwegian authorities seized a Russian vessel in the remote Arctic archipelago of Svalbard at the request of Ukraine, drawing condemnation from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who on Thursday compared it to \u201cstate terrorism.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>A court in Norway ordered the seizure as part of efforts by Ukraine\u2019s state energy company Naftogaz to recover a $4.22 billion arbitration award. It stems from Russia\u2019s 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea and its seizure of Ukrainian energy assets, including gas fields and pipelines.<\/p>\n<p>After Russia\u2019s refusal to pay the 2023 award, Naftogaz has been petitioning national courts seeking orders to seize Russian commercial assets.<\/p>\n<p>The vessel, Professor Molchanov, is used for commercial expedition cruises, including to Svalbard, which sits more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of the Norwegian mainland. It\u2019s known for its stunning snow-covered mountains, fjords and glaciers. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is another important step towards restoring justice for Russia\u2019s unlawful seizure of Naftogaz assets in Crimea,\u201d Naftogaz CEO Sergii Fedorenko said. \u201cRussia cannot evade responsibility simply by refusing to comply with an international arbitral award. We will continue to pursue Russian assets around the world.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Putin, speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-war-putin-zelenskyy-drone-attacks-117ececb1e1fa4b4084fa0938ce9943d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">criticized the vessel seizure<\/a> and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s warning to foreign airlines to avoid Russia because of Ukrainian long-range drone attacks. <\/p>\n<p>Putin said such incidents \u201ccomplicated\u201d the prospects for future peace talks. He added that Ukraine\u2019s allies were \u201ccomplicit in international terrorism\u201d by remaining silent on the issues.<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s ambassador to Norway, Nikolai Korchunov, told Russian state news agency Tass that the seizure of the vessel was a \u201cpolitically motivated violation of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said that the court decision to seize the vessel would be appealed and that the embassy was in contact with the ship\u2019s crew and passengers, Tass reported.<\/p>\n<p>Svalbard Gov. Lars Fause said in a statement that the vessel was not allowed to leave its current location in Barentsburg. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OSLO, Norway (AP) \u2014 Norwegian authorities seized a Russian vessel in the remote Arctic archipelago of Svalbard at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1041161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,7838,57,416693,50,416694,18242,70078,80,3658,3657,416692,5343,273,274,3656,103,107],"class_list":["post-1041160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-business","tag-diplomacy","tag-general-news","tag-lars-fause","tag-news","tag-nikolai-korchunov","tag-norway","tag-norway-government","tag-politics","tag-russia-government","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-svalbard-and-jan-mayen","tag-terrorism","tag-ukraine","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117208194069260265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1041161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}