On the board are Oslo, the allies of NATO, the Trump administration and even a central figure of the team that Putin sent to Saudi Arabia to negotiate the future of Ukraine without Europeans
Almost a thousand kilometers separate Tromsø, the northern northern city of the Norwegian coast, and Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago that is one of NATO’s most remote geographical zones – and the latest focus of conflict between Vladimir Putin Russia and one of the allies.
With a resident population of about three thousand people, the archipelago is a point of strategic importance for the Russians. This is why the experts say, that this month Moscow bet on charges on Norway of being violating the treaty governing the archipelago, in what may be, the foreshadowing of a test attack to Europe.
“Svalbard is arguably remote and cold, but the archipelago is strategically positioned, and Russia may well decide to use it as a test case – which means it’s time to start an eye on Svalbard,” from the transatlantic security initiative.
Lie a particular eye on the complaint that Kremlin filed in mid-March against what he claims to be Svalbard’s militarization by Norway, something the country pledged never to do when the archipelago’s sovereignty was attributed to him 105 years ago.
At a meeting with Robert Kvile, the Norwegian ambassador in Moscow, high diplomatic employees of Russia complained that, “contrary to the 1920s’ international legal regime, which foresees the exclusively peaceful development of the archipelago and prohibits the use of the territory for military purposes – the area is increasingly involved in Norwegian military planning with the participation of the participation of the participation. USA and NATO ”.
In addition to having a strategic position in Arctic, Svalbard houses the so -called “Revelation Vault”, where millions of seeds are stored for a future where the planet is devastated by climate change (John McConnico/AP)
The information was reported by the Russian agency Tass, which in the same news cited the Russian Foreign Ministry to claim that “double -purpose facilities are operating in the archipelago, allowing, along with civilian tasks, military tasks, including combat operations in the territory of third countries.”
These, contrasts Braw, are not the facts. “There is no Norwegian military use of the archipelago – and especially no such use by the NATO or the US,” the analyst stressed earlier this week. “The Svalbard Treaty prohibits military foundations and military fortifications, and there are no such facilities on any of the islands – although Norwegian war ships patrol the waters around the archipelago. […] Instead, who is causing disturbances is Russia. ”
Landings, flags, stops
The story of those who control the archipelago, also known as Spitsbergen, and how dates back to the late nineteenth century, when coal reserves were discovered there, increasing the attractiveness of the islands inhabited by humans since they were discovered by whalers in 1600. Near the archipelago (even if it dictates 930 kilometers away).
Under the Treaty of Svalbard, the country accepted as counterpart to allow citizens and companies from other signatory states to live, work and operate from there – along with the commitment of never militarizing the archipelago. If there were 14 original signatories, other countries would come to the treaty later, such as Russia, which ratified it in 1935 to organize what Braw defines as “a Soviet presence centered on the coal mines” which he began to manage.
Until 1998, almost a decade after the USSR’s collapse, Svalbard housed a village that worked as a “Soviet mini-union”. This year, the Russian company Arktikugol closed all its mines in Svalbard and its model city, Pyramiden – which, abandoned in a hurry, is still today.
“However, Russia has never left Svalbard completely,” says Atlantic Council expert. Instead, the last years have watched questionable demonstrations of the Russian authorities and other Russian state representatives in the archipelago that houses the.
One of the most notorious cases happened a decade ago, when Dmitry Rogozin, Russian-prime minister sanctioned by the West, from where he made a series of publications on social networks to enjoy the Norwegians. In 2023, about a year after the large -scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russians organized a military parade of victory day in the archipelago, as reported by Barents Observer.
One on the Norwegian newspaper website nowadays shows the size of Russia’s interference in recent years – such as when, less than a year ago, the director of Arktikugol and others raised Soviet flags in Pyramiden.
For Elisabeth Braw, “more worrying” than the apparent “resentment of Russia in the glorious days” of her mini -assss in Svalbard is the fact that the kremlin “seems to see the archipelago as a place to test new ways to assert the West – a sanctioned Russian officer arrived in Svalbard without permission, the boss of Arktikugol planting a flag plantar Soviet and a victory day parade (although the Nazis have never occupied Svalbard) are all poorly subtle provocations that the Norwegian government can do little.
The language that pleases Trump
On March 20, Jamestown Foundation, conservative Think Tank specializing in Washington DC headquarters, has dedicated a long time from Svalbard where he said that “in the last ten days, Moscow has dramatically increased tensions with the West through conflicts in the North and Arctic Atlantic Oceans”, but that “Kremlin is offering US President Donald Trump, ‘a way out’ through a broader ‘agreement’.
Using a “classic Russian tactic of disorientation”, after the meeting with the Norwegian ambassador in Moscow, Russian businessman Kirill Dmitiev – a central figure in the current negotiations on Ukraine in Saudi Arabia – to insist that now is not the time for a new “cold war” in the Arctic, but for a comprehensive “agreement” between Moscow and Washington – “Precisely the kind of language that will likely please Trump,” says Jamestown Foundation.
The director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitiev is one of the central figures of the Russian team that is negotiating the future of Ukraine with the Trump administration in Saudi Arabia (Baraa Anwer/AP)
The fact that Kremlin has summoned the Norwegian ambassador to submit his formal complaint about Svalbard’s misuse for military purposes, “it was only the last of a series of Russian steps over the last few years” with a focus on the archipelago, “actions that are leading some defense analysts to conclude that these islands, as well as others from Baltic and the North Atlantic, may be Russia’s first targets decide to attack NATO countries. ”
In the first Trump administration, it was precisely Kirill Dmitiev who tried one, then-US Secretary of State, proposing a partnership between Washington and Moscow in the Arctic. The stated objective: explore gas and oil. The plans have never come true, but it all points out that they may now be revived, in parallel with negotiations about the future of Ukraine and to pair and step with diplomatic pressures.
As Elisabeth Brawl points out, Moscow’s accusations to Oslo give the Russians the option of responding to the alleged violations of the Svalbard Treaty – a subterfuge in the rest used with Ukraine, repeatedly accused of violations that, from the optics of the Russians, justify their actions.
“How can Russia respond to Norway’s alleged infraction?” Asks the expert. “It’s impossible to know. But one thing is certain: although Svalbard can be extremely remote, what happens there won’t be there.”
