Passengers and crew on board a Russian state-owned tourist ship seized off the coast of Norway have returned home.
Russian’s foreign ministry confirmed the group of 69 Russians were on their way to Murmansk.
Svalbard governor Lars Fause detained the 620-dwt Professor Molchanov (built 1982) as part of a legal battle launched by Ukrainian oil and gas company Naftogaz over assets seized following the 2014 occupation of Crimea.
The ship was held at the island of Spitsbergen in the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard on 2 September after an order by a Norwegian court. The passengers were returned this week.
“The evacuees were provided with all necessary assistance and support,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
The ship was owned by Russian agency the Northern Administration for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, which runs commercial cruises to Svalbard.
Naftogaz secured an arbitration award of $4.22bn at the Hague in 2019 over the seizure of its energy assets. The ship could be sold to satisfy a small part of the award.
The company’s production facilities were attacked in the aftermath of the seizure, with fires blazing, but there with no casualties, the company said.
Its gas production facilities and filling stations were hit 96 times in the first four months of the year.
Naftogaz said it would continue pursuing Russian assets around the world.
