Everyone has always needed Svalbard.
Especially since he was a nobody.
And there was no such population that could be conquered and then planted on reservations.
But it was seen both as a gateway to the Arctic and as a good place to mine everything that can be mined.
At first, the Danes squabbled over him with the Norwegians inherent in them against the British.
At the same time, Holland, France, German cities staged a bulldog battle for these fishing areas.
The Russians did not touch anyone, but simply dragged fish from there, moving towards Grumant (but this is for those who studied geography before the exam).
The term "no man's land" in relation to this island was even fixed between Russia and the Swedes with their inherent Norwegians already in the year 1872.
And only on February 9, 1920 in Paris, representatives of Great Britain, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the USA, France, Sweden, Japan and five English dominions and colonies signed the Spitsbergen Treaty.
That is, they gave sovereignty over the island to the country of Norway.
Under certain conditions.
These very conditions led to the fact that from the year 1934 on the island, the USSR began to realize its interests closely by creating the Arktikugol enterprise.
It is clear that over time and in the course of geological exploration, it turned out that Russia has not only coal interest in the Arctic, but other minerals are also important, without which, as it turned out, even Tesla cannot be made - today the Arctic potential provides about 11% of national income Russia, since more than 90% of nickel and cobalt, 60% of copper, 96% of platinoids are mined here.
The predicted volume of hydrocarbons in the zone of economic influence of the Russian Federation in the Arctic is 5 billion tons of reference fuel.
But here's the bad news: Norway is reportedly blocking the loading of cargo destined for Svalbard at the Storskog land border crossing, citing EU sanctions.
It is assumed that the cargo was intended for Russian miners.
Some tend to view this unfriendly act in the context of Lithuania's antics regarding Kaliningrad.
Some particularly important experts even suggest sending amphibious assaults there and putting the pissed-off Vikings in their place.
Yes and no.
In fact, the case is of a completely different nature.
To begin with: the island is a demilitarized zone, and it will not work with the passage of warships.
This would be too clear a violation of all treaties on the island.
If an opponent behaves like a jerk, it is not necessary to mirror him, as psychologists say.
In addition, there is some experience: after Norway established a 200-mile fish protection zone around the Svalbard archipelago, other countries, in particular Russia, faced certain difficulties in free access to the sea areas around the archipelago.
The key words here are “other countries”.
Because there are actually a lot of countries in the treaty, and they all look at Norway with curiosity and hostility: how screwed up it is.
Although Russia today is the “bad guy of Europe,” they project everything that happens onto their loved ones.
The internal Norwegian legislation cannot contradict the international legal status of Svalbard fixed by the agreement.
Yes, and the EU sanctions can’t either: getting Russian miners who don’t even have a single “Caliber” in the mines is so-so heroism.
Nonetheless.
“Any transportation through the Norwegian land territory of any goods by Russian road carriers, regardless of the range of goods, fell under the ban.
This ban went into effect on April 29.
We note in particular: Russia - the only state from the signatories of the agreement on the island, which has its own consulate there - is so tightly integrated into the local territories of the country.
The current action against Russian citizens on the island is not just some unexpected outburst of Russophobia.
Norway has been trying to torpedo the previous treaty for a long time and does so long and boringly by establishing various maritime zones - sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction - around the archipelago.
In order to extremely complicate the joint use of natural resources.
Joining the EU sanctions is from the same row, it helps to slowly push all interested parties out of the territory.
It got loud.
But the truth is that the US, UK, Denmark and other states are not happy with this process of getting Norway out of the old treaty.
And in principle, if a military solution to this issue is unacceptable, it is these countries that can become, if not allies of the Russians in the struggle for the miners' right to food and winter clothes, then at least participants in the process "every man for himself, but everyone is dissatisfied with Norway."
And then Norway will flog itself - for the sake of this it is not worth threatening the fleet.
We will soon find out what the Russian leadership means by an "adequate response."
In the meantime, you can not listen to petty politicians from among the deputies.
Including Norwegian ones.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.