Moscow, June 29. Russia today summoned the Norwegian Chargé d’Affairs, Solvig Rossibo, to protest the ban on the supply of goods destined for Russian citizens working in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.
“We demand that the Norwegian side solve the problem as soon as possible. We have indicated that unfriendly measures against Russia will inevitably lead to similar countermeasures,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Moscow owes that these supplies are destined, among other things, to employees of the Russian state company Arktikugol, which manages Russian economic activities in the archipelago.
The official memo explains that due to restrictions on the transit of goods by land imposed by Oslo in April, “vital goods” were stranded at the border to ensure the functioning of the Russian company as well as the Russian Consulate General.
“It includes foodstuffs, medical equipment, construction materials, and transportation spare parts,” he says.
Along the same lines, the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Senate, Konstantin Kosachev, today accused Norway of violating the Paris Agreement (1920), which recognizes Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard, but also the right of the signatories, including Russia, to exploit its resources. .
For this reason, he argues, the ships and goods of the signatory nations cannot be subject to any restrictions.
Kosachev specifically emphasized that the blockade left miners working in Barentsburg without food, which he considered “immoral” and a violation of human rights.
At the end of April, the government of Norway announced that it would ban road transport for Russian operators from May 7 and would close its ports to ships flying that country’s flag under the fifth package of European Union (EU) sanctions, of which it is not part,
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However, Svalbard was excluded from the sanctions precisely because of the Treaty of Paris, which was also signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Denmark, among other countries.
Norway unilaterally expanded its sovereignty to an area of 200 miles around Svalbard in 1977, although Moscow only recognizes Norwegian sovereignty over twelve miles.
The Kremlin in recent months has expressed great interest in exploiting the region’s rich polar deposits, which worries other countries neighboring the region, such as the United States or Canada. EFE
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