At first glance, the parade resembles a military parade. A helicopter hovers above the motorcade, large Russian flags are waved from the windows of the black cars, and the men on the snowmobiles wear green suits. A "victory parade" was held on Tuesday not only in Moscow, but also in Barentsburg. This is located on Spitsbergen and, like the entire archipelago, is a demilitarized area. A video of it was shared by the Russian Ministry of Far East and Arctic Development on Telegram. According to local media reports, the action was carried out by employees of the Russian state-owned mining company Arktiquegol, which has a monopoly position on the ground.

Julian Staib

Political correspondent for Northern Germany and Scandinavia, based in Hamburg.

  • Follow I follow

Such actions are fueling concerns in the Nordic states about increasing tensions with Russia, especially in the Arctic. The incident is "worrying", but fits into the development of recent years: Russia is massively arming itself in the Arctic region and is increasingly asserting claims, says Tobias Etzold, who conducts research at the Norwegian Institute for Foreign Policy in Oslo.

High North, Low Voltages

Spitsbergen has belonged to Norway since 1920. But other states that have signed the treaty on the archipelago are allowed to use the area economically and for research purposes. The region is regarded as an example of peaceful international cooperation. The Arctic Council, of which the riparian states are members, discussed the pressing issues that arise in the region, especially as a result of climate change.

In the far north, there was cooperation, regardless of what else was happening in the world. Far north, low tensions, it was always said. There was talk of the "Arctic exception". But that's over since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Cooperation in the Arctic Council, which Russia currently chairs, has been suspended. Norway will take over the presidency from this Thursday, but it has already announced that it will not resume cooperation.

Russia is engaged in mining in Barentsburg, where many Russians and Ukrainians work. For a long time, this was largely free of tension, but the war and the sanctions have consequences here as well. On a small scale, because now the Russian bank cards at the Norwegian ATMs no longer work. And also on a large scale, because many people have left the Russian-influenced place in the meantime. "Ukrainians, but also Russians who oppose the invasion, are all gone," says a Russian woman who now lives in Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen, on the phone.

Spying on Russian fishing boats

In the Nordic countries, there are currently almost daily reports of the danger posed by Russia in the region. This involves espionage by Russian "research vessels" and fishing trawlers. The latter are said to be responsible for cutting cables to Spitsbergen in late 2021/early 2022. As recently as Tuesday, the Norwegian National Security Agency warned that the country's gas, electricity and electronic communications pipelines were at risk of sabotage.

Militarily, meanwhile, the attitude towards Russia in the region is being significantly tightened. This year, for example, the multinational military exercise in Northern Europe, known as the "Arctic Challenge", is larger than ever. This time, from the end of May, around 150 military aircraft are to take part, including in exercises on the Russian border. Basically, however, the region has fallen behind Russia militarily.

Pekka Toveri, a major general in the Finnish army and a member of parliament in Helsinki, says that the West has behaved "naïvely" in the Arctic, that Russia has never kept its promises, for example on climate protection, but has enormously armed itself militarily and carried out provocations in rows. In a recent paper with researchers from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), Toveri wrote that Russia has systematically exploited the paradigm of "Arctic exceptionalism" to "outmaneuver" the West in the region. The mantra of exception in the far north is a "trap". The West's hope for multilateral cooperation has helped to keep NATO out of the region. The West's military capabilities in the region are about "ten years behind those of Russia."

It is necessary to "escort Russia out"

It is necessary to show the Kremlin that it has to pay a price for its provocations, Toveri now says. "The only language Russia understands is that of strength." If the country does not behave accordingly and, for example, holds military-like parades in the demilitarized zone on Spitsbergen, the Russians must be "escorted out". It is necessary to station significantly more NATO troops in the far north, and the alliance finally needs a plan on how to defend the Arctic. It is unforeseeable when there will be renewed cooperation with Russia.

The researcher Etzold says that in the long term, geography alone will make it difficult to avoid talking to Russia about issues affecting the Arctic. "Many problems in the region can only be solved together with Russia." In the long term, the costs of a lack of cooperation could also be high, for example if China were to act more as an actor. He points out that the mining company Arktikugol recently announced that Russia wanted to set up an international research station on Spitsbergen in cooperation with the other countries of the BRICS group (Brazil, India, China and South Africa).