Moscow TV Film Describes Portion of Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago as ‘a Russian Enclave Beyond the Arctic Circle’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 6 – A 52-minute NTV film entitled “Svalbard. The Coal Archipelago” being shown in Moscow this week simultaneously suggests that Russia already has an “enclave” there and that Norway is militarizing the islands in violation of international law, according to Denis Zagorje of The Barents Observer.

            The film itself is available at rutube.ru/video/410a40573261fa50d530c6c02f587b3e/. The Barents Observer journalist’s report about it is at ru.thebarentsobserver.com/novosti/na-ntv-pokazali-film-pro-svalbard-cto-s-nim-ne-tak/461421.

            According to Zagorje, the film creates “the impression that there is a territory under Russian sovereignty in the archipelago” by stating that those who view it will see “how they live and work in the Russian enclave beyond the Arctic Circle,” a falsehood given that there is no such thing as a Russian enclave there. All the territory is under Norwegian sovereignty.

            But that is not the only false message of the film, he continues. Most of the movie is devoted to attacking Norway for militarizing Svalbard, even though the pictures the film claims show that are of military exercises elsewhere and the attacks against Oslo are at a minimum tendentious and more to the point outrageously false.

            This is the latest and most public example of Moscow’s effort to prepare Russians for the possibility of a move against Svalbard and thus NATO. For background on that possibility, see jamestown.org/moscows-first-move-against-nato-could-take-place-in-norways-svalbard-archipelago/ and jamestown.org/moscow-using-svalbard-to-test-natos-readiness-and-resolve/.