RGO Expedition Delayed in Svalbard Due to Seizure of "Professor Molchanov"

 
Norwegian authorities have seized the Russian research vessel Professor Molchanov, which was moored at the pier in Barentsburg on the Svalbard archipelago. The seizure is based on a court order issued on August 31, according to which the vessel is prohibited from casting off its moorings in Barentsburg. The ship was scheduled to evacuate the research group "Russian Svalbard" of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) from the archipelago.
 
Among the researchers stranded in Svalbard is Pavel Anatolyevich Filin, PhD in History and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Arctic Studies of the Pyotr the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Furthermore, Filin serves as the Executive Secretary of the Interdepartmental Commission on Maritime, Cultural, and Historical Heritage under the Government RF Marine Collegium and is a member of the Polar Commission of the Russian Geographical Society. He has been conducting fieldwork in high latitudes since 1999.
 
Pavel Filin led the RGS expedition within the framework of the "Russian Svalbard" project, aimed at mapping the Russian historical and cultural heritage of the archipelago. The atlas is planned for publication by the end of 2027. The research team also includes two cartographers from Moscow-based scientific institutions. Pavel Filin is in contact with the leadership of the Kunstkamera; expedition participants are expected to be evacuated from Svalbard by air shortly.
 
"The strange event — the seizure of the 'Professor Molchanov' — causes irritation but does not affect the work of the expedition," commented Andrey Golovnyov, Director of the Kunstkamera and an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
 
The Professor Molchanov is a Russian research vessel belonging to Roshydromet. Since June 2025, the vessel has been operating between Murmansk and Svalbard to deliver scientists, personnel, and cargo to the archipelago. In 2026, the ship was scheduled to make ten voyages.
 
 
Photo from the official VK page of Pavel Filin.