Russian tycoon Vitaly Orlov is suing The Barents Observer, a small Norwegian news outlet, over its reporting on sanctions against his fishing company. 

The Barents Observer is a six-person non-profit newsroom in Kirkenes, a town of about 7,000 people in Norway’s far north. But the lawsuit isn’t taking place there — or even in Norway. Instead, Orlov has lodged a defamation suit in the High Court of London.

“We don’t even have money for plane tickets to go to the court,” said Editor in Chief Thomas Nilsen.

“It’s just not possible for us to defend ourselves against all of the claims,” he told OCCRP’s Norwegian media partner, NRK, adding that if Orlov is awarded some legal costs, The Barents Observer “will go bankrupt.” 

Orlov’s fishing company, Norebo JSC, said in a statement provided to OCCRP that the choice of London as a venue for the lawsuit was related to the fact that The Barents Observer publishes in English.

“The Barents Observer is a Norwegian publication that publishes in English and now complains at being sued in England. This is the very country The Barents Observer has courted,” the company said.

The legal claim by Orlov’s lawyers, from the London firm Devonshires, states that The Barents Observer website received 190,000 hits from the U.K. in 2025, according to a web analytics firm. 

But U.K. readers make up only 5 percent of The Barents Observer readers, according to a letter the publication sent to the court. 

“It is difficult to understand the logic behind Vitaly Orlov bringing his grievances before a court in England,” The Barents Observer stated in its letter.

The Barents Observer noted that it is based in Norway, and that Norebo is already engaged in a lawsuit against the Norwegian government in response to its ban on company vessels using its territorial waters and ports.

Orlov is claiming damages as a result of “serious harm” to his reputation caused by five news stories published by The Barents Observer between May 2025 and January this year. The news reports covered the E.U. sanctioning of Norebo, but also included information about Orlov himself.

The E.U. sanctions notice does not mention Orlov, and he has not been sanctioned. The sanctions notice alleges that Norebo vessels showed “movement patterns [that] align with malign objectives.”

“The movement patterns have been linked, including by Member States and the authorities of third states, to the Russian state-sponsored surveillance campaign that employs inter alia, civilian fishing trawlers, to conduct espionage missions directed against civilian and military infrastructure in the North and Baltic Sea,” the sanctions notice states.

In the claim brought to the High Court of London on behalf of Orlov, Devonshires lawyers note that “Norebo disputes the designation and has brought annulment proceedings before the General Court of the European Union.”