Naftogaz targets Russian properties in Oslo after Svalbard move

Ukraine’s state-owned energy company Naftogaz is seeking to enforce an arbitral award against Russian state assets following the expropriation of its assets in Crimea after Russia’s illegal annexation of the peninsula in 2014.

On 31 August, a district court in northern Norway granted Naftogaz’s application to seize the Professor Molchanov, a Russian state-owned vessel that has been shuttling between Murmansk and Barentsburg on Svalbard this summer. The seizure made international headlines and prompted strong protests in Moscow.

Barents Observer has asked the Governor of Svalbard for access to information about other Russian assets that Naftogaz has sought to seize. The Governor rejected the request. The Ministry of Justice and Public Security in Oslo has not responded to similar questions from Barents Observer.

The Norwegian newspaper VG can now report, however, that 62 snowmobiles, 15 cars and four bank accounts have been seized. Earlier this summer, the business daily Dagens Næringsliv reported that Naftogaz had secured the seizure of Russki Dom, a building in Longyearbyen used by Grumant, the travel agency operated by Arktikugol, the Russian state-owned company that runs Moscow’s commercial activities on Svalbard.

The successive seizures prompted the Norwegian government to fast-track the adoption of a special regulation in mid-September aimed at safeguarding supply lines to the Russian settlements on Svalbard.

Despite claims to the contrary by the Russian Embassy in Oslo and Arktikugol, the Professor Molchanov has not played a significant role in supplying Barentsburg. While the vessel has carried visitors from mainland Russia, including artists, journalists, social media influencers, members of a youth military group, Orthodox priests, tourists, workers and their families, other cargo vessels have supplied the settlement with food, fuel and machinery needed to operate the coal mine and maintain the local community.

As previously reported by Barents Observer, these supply vessels include the Taimyr and the Kapitan Yakovlev. Both have been sanctioned by the United States and Ukraine over their involvement in transporting weapons before delivering supplies to Barentsburg.

Meanwhile, the Professor Molchanov remains in port in Barentsburg, with only a limited number of crew members on board. Earlier this week, the District Court of Nord-Troms and Senja in northern Norway heard arguments from lawyers representing Arktikugol and Naftogaz concerning the vessel’s fate. A ruling is expected within days.

In the Norwegian capital, the Oslo District Court has also authorised the seizure of five Russian-owned properties. According to VG, these include a residential apartment building in Frogner, three flats elsewhere in Oslo’s affluent western districts, and a fourth in Sinsen.

Naftogaz’s claim against the Professor Molchanov and other assets in Svalbard (and in Oslo) is not unique, but forms part of a pattern of similar cases in Finland, France and Austria, where Naftogaz has also obtained rulings allowing it to seize Russian state property.

On the Ukrainian side, considerable efforts are being made to hold Russia legally accountable for the annexation of Crimea and the seizure of Ukrainian property there. However, these cases are difficult because Russia contests the rulings and does not recognise international law or international courts, such as the arbitration tribunal in The Hague.

In March 2026, Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court ruled in favour of Naftogaz in a $1,4 billion dispute with Russia's Gazprom company, according to Euromaidan Press.

In 2023, an arbitral tribunal in The Hague ordered Russia to pay Naftogaz $4.2 billion, plus interest and legal costs, in compensation for losses suffered by the Ukrainian energy company in Crimea, which was temporarily occupied and subsequently illegally annexed by Russia.