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.
On Wednesday, the Norwegians pounced.
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 impounded 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 seizing 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 — makes 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.
But as the Arctic region has become more strategically contested, and after Western European countries lined up against Russia in the wake of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, Svalbard, in turn, has become a reflection of a new, sharper-elbowed world.
The Norwegians are defending this part of the Arctic as never before, increasing surveillance, taking rights away from foreigners and putting more restrictions on international scientists. They are especially wary of Russian vessels prowling around Svalbard’s seas.
Russian state media said the research ship had been taking about 20 artists to Barentsburg for a special exhibition. Yuri Trutnev, a Russian presidential envoy, called the seizure “a really strange thing to do.”
“We have a treaty on Svalbard. It’s been around for decades,” he said. That treaty has now been violated, he added.
Norway’s ambassador to Moscow met with officials at the Russian foreign ministry, and the Norwegian authorities said they would help “take care of the crew and passengers” who were on Professor Molchanov when it was seized.
But several academics who study this part of the world said the ship was a well-known propaganda tool and that for years it had been ferrying Russian agents to Svalbard who then raised Russian flags and boosted Russian claims to the archipelago, in addition to performing surveillance.
“The ship has been used for Russian hybrid operations,” said Kari Aga Myklebost, a professor of Russian history at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromso.
She said that Norway was now trying to “put its foot down” and that the country “needs to send a clear message to Russia that Norway does not accept hybrid operations in Norwegian waters or in Svalbard.”
Norway has been closely monitoring all types of Russian vessels in recent years. Norwegian intelligence officials have said that the Kremlin frequently uses civilian personnel and nonmilitary vessels with legitimate access to Norwegian ports to gather intelligence. Russian spies are especially interested in Norway’s defense technology and weapons capabilities, Norwegian reports said.
Norway is now testing whether its courts have authority over Russian property in a region with a longstanding Russian presence, said Anthony Heron, a researcher at the Arctic Institute, an international research center headquartered in Washington.
Like the governments of Britain, France and other European nations, the Norwegians are stepping up legal action where Russian assets are exposed and reachable, he added.
“Although it’s just a legal enforcement action, not a security incident, it lands in an especially sensitive spot geographically,” Mr. Heron said. He said the seizure of this ship in Svalbard could push the limits of how far Norwegian sovereignty “extends in Moscow’s eyes.”
Alina Lobzina contributed reporting.
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