Paul Goble
Staunton, May 13 – A small demonstration on Svalbard organized by the Russian consulate general and the Moscow-owned Arktikugol company and featuring four young people wearing Russian uniforms and waving Russian and Soviet flags was “a veiled effort” to challenge Norwegian sovereignty over the archipelago, Atle Staalesen says.
The founder of The Barents Observer says that Kari Aga Myklebost, a scholar at Norway’s Arctic University agrees and used “seemly legitimate war commemorations to normalize warmongering symbols and rhetoric” (thebarentsobserver.com/news/behind-russias-victory-day-ceremony-on-svalbard-was-a-veiled-effort-to-build-a-militarised-presence/450491).
“Through these events,” she says, “Kremlin foreign policy narratives about victory in Ukraine and a Russian ‘war of defense’ are promoted, while at the same time Norway’s liberal principles concerning freedom of speech and assembly are being exploited and tested.”
She adds that “Not only liberal principles but also Norwegian and wider European security are at stake. If Russia succeeds in pushing these boundaries and normalizing its militarised presence on Svalbard, we may face a serious and acute security situation.” And she calls for Norway to push back and encourage others in the West to do the same.
Norwegian officials on Svalbard, however, played down the event telling Aftenposten that “there is nothing about the demonstration that we find cause to react to” (aftenposten.no/verden/i/aJvOBd/putin-parade-paa-norsk-territorium-en-provokasjon-fra-russland).
(For background on Svalbard and Russian efforts to exploit the special legal situation there, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/11/putins-special-envoy-for-svalbard-says.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2026/01/russia-has-every-right-to-expand-its.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2026/02/moscow-increases-its-focus-on-two-north.html.)
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