Norway has seized the Russian-owned Professor Molchanov near Svalbard to help enforce an international arbitral award requiring Russia to pay Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz $4.22 billion, plus interest and legal costs. The award followed Russia's seizure of Naftogaz assets when it annexed Crimea in 2014, and Moscow has not paid. A Norwegian court approved the vessel's arrest and compulsory sale after Naftogaz's lawyers tracked its planned voyage to Barentsburg. Russia is appealing the process and called the seizure piracy, while Naftogaz says it is coordinating efforts to pursue Russian assets in the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Finland.