Norwegian Justice Ministry Overrules Norwegian Court Decision Allowing for Seizure of Russian Ship in Svalbard to Satisfy ICC Appeal by Ukraine

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 19 – Three weeks ago, a Norwegian court allowed for the seizure of a Russian ship in Svalbard in fulfillment of a 2023 decision of the ICC to compensate a Ukrainian company for Russian seizures of its assets. Putin expressed outrage, and now the Norwegian justice ministry has overruled that court decision.

            The ministry said that the special status of Svalbard means that countries signatory to the treaty governing use of that land must have confidence they can supply their citizens on the island, a not unreasonable position but one that Norwegian experts say Moscow will treat as a retreat by Oslo and a victory by Russia over what Moscow called “state terrorism.”

            The justice ministry’s action means that Svalbard court’s decision will be declared valid at the time it was made but that the ministry’s action means that the seizure will be reversed and future seizures of that type, regardless of the status of the court which ordered them, will not be allowed.

            (For the original action, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2026/09/with-norwegian-s.eizure-of-russian-ship.html; for Norway’s retreat in the face of Russian protests, see ru.thebarentsobserver.com/novosti/norvegia-usloznila-ukraine-vozmoznost-arestovyvat-rossijskie-suda-na-svalbarde/458379.)

            What makes this course of events worrisome is that it is likely to encourage Russia and its supporters to believe they can get Western countries to vacate ICC decisions by Moscow’s protests and that they will continue to test the limits of Western tolerance by further raising the stakes.

            Given Moscow’s current moves against NATO countries and especially against European islands in the North Atlantic like the Svalbard archipelago, what Norway has done may cause the Kremlin to expand its subversive activities to a point that Western countries will find it impossible to accept.

            That scenario is now increasingly likely and could mean that a war between Russia and NATO could in fact be triggered by a sequence of events like this one, a possibility that had been suggested by some analysts earlier. (On that, see jamestown.org/moscows-first-move-against-nato-could-take-place-in-norways-svalbard-archipelago/.)