Moscow’s Plans to Boost Russian Presence on Svalbard Compromised by Lack of Ships Qualified to Sail there, Artikugol Director Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 10 – To counter Western moves in the Arctic and to expand Russian influence there, Moscow has announced programs to bring as many as 50,000 tourists from the Russian Federation to Norway’s Svalbard archipelago; but a senior Russian businessman there says that Russia currently lacks the ships capable of doing so.

            Ildar Neverov, head of Artikugol, the Russian coal mining enterprise there, has told TASS that Russia currently lacks enough ice-capable passenger ships to carry out that plan, a situation he hopes Moscow will overcome (tass.ru/ekonom, ika/27904085 and ru.thebarentsobserver.com/novosti/artikugol-hocet-rassirit-turizm-na-svalbarde-no-ispytyvaet-nehvatku-podhodasih-sudov/453545).

            Planes are not enough, he says, because none come directly from Russia and thus there are visa problems as well as capacity; and the number of ships available is far too small to handle anything like the number of tourists and workers for the coal mines that Moscow would like to see in Svalbard in the future.

            What represents an especially serious problem, he suggests, is that many of the ships now being used are more than 40 years old and thus do not have the electronic systems that can protect them against icebergs, a requirement since Moscow’s icebreaker fleet is committed elsewhere, and Russian yards are not now building the needed passenger ships.

            For background on Russia’s plans to use tourism as part of an effort to project Russian power in Svalbard, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2026/06/moscow-organizes-summer-school-in.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/11/moscow-plans-to-build-infrastructure-on.html.