Arkhangelsk ship packed with students spurs controversy in Norway

Business online E24, public broadcaster NRK and news agency NTB bring headlines about the permission given by Norwegian authorities for “Professor Molchanov” to map the continental shelf for minerals.

The articles hint at bad intentions, security trouble and sanctions following Russia’s war on Ukraine. Also, the voyage is mixed with other Russian oceanographic research plans for the Arctic shelf this summer, like the voyage with “Akademik Keldysh”. 

Incorrectly, the media stories claim “Professor Molchanov” is owned by the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, a branch of the Russian Academy of Science sanctioned by the United States. It is the Northern Directorate of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology (SevHydroMet) that owns the ship, while the ongoing voyage is organized in cooperation with Arkhangelsk-based Northern (Arctic) Federal University, NArFU.

Permission to collect a few bottom samples is limited to international waters on the shelf east of Nordaustlandet, south of Kvitøya, part of the Svalbard archipelago. According to E24, the permission to collect samples of bottom sediments is time-limited for June 10 to July 10. It is, however, not clear if the voyage at all will sail to the northwestern Barents Sea. 

Both NArFU and regional authorities in Arkhangelsk list a totally different path for the expedition. Embarking last Friday, the students, researchers and journalists set sail for the White Sea and Barents Sea. On Monday, the vessel was off the coast of Gremikha on the Kola Peninsula and by Tuesday, the ship sails northbound in the Barents Sea towards Novaya Zemlya where two landings are planned. Additional destinations include the islands of Kolguyev and Vaigach, as well as the waters around Franz Josef Land and the Kara Sea.

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Svalbard and the northwestern Barents Sea are not mentioned. The ship will be back in port in Arkhangelsk on July 15.

State-controlled TASS news agency has a journalist onboard that provides daily diary updates about the work of the students. 

This is the 11th year in a row that “Professor Molchanov” sails with students in Arctic waters during summer time. Entitled Floating Arctic University, the voyages aim to teach about the Arctic environment, climate glaciology and oceanography.

Same vessel, opposite narrative 

Ten years ago, in 2013, it was the Norwegians onboard “Professor Molchanov” that made headlines in Russian media. Marking the 100th anniversary since explorer Fridtjof Nansen sailed to the Yenisei River, NArFu and UiT-Arctic University of Norway, embarked on a voyage from the White Sea to the Arctic port of Dudinka, including a port call to Dikson on the northern coast to the Kara Sea.

An article by news agency Regnum about the expedition more than hinted that the Norwegian interest onboard was devoted to grabbing a share of Russia’s Arctic resources. The tour was named a “soft power steamer of Norway” and Russian participants onboard were branded as “assets” and “agents” of Norway.

The Barents Observer, together with newspapers Dagens Næringsliv and Nordlys, reported from the joint Norwegian-Russian voyage in 2013.

Originally built in Finland in the early 1980ties, the ice-strengthened ”Professor Molchanov” has sailed for different Murmansk and Arkhangelsk-based research institutions, as well as several seasons on tourist voyages in Arctic waters.