Spitsbergen... an island covered in Russian sweat and blood, and NATO's "Achilles heel".

Magnificent islands with glaciers, carrying on their land a danger that their beauty does not reflect, represent the "glow of hope" for Russia, and the "Achilles' heel" of NATO in the north.

Spitsbergen Island is the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago, a magnificent island consisting of glaciers and mountain peaks in the "midway" between Norway and the Arctic, is a strategic and economic bridge to Moscow.

All because of one of the most unusual international treaties ever concluded, which grants Norway sovereignty over the island, but allows the citizens of 46 countries to exploit the islands' vast resources on an equal footing.

That is why there are 370 Russian and Ukrainian workers from Donbass in one district of Spitsbergen, where the Soviets have dug coal for decades, and where it is dark all day, for nearly three months out of the year.

 A Russian official said, "Spitsbergen has been covered in Russian sweat and blood for centuries... I'm not claiming it's not a Norwegian territory, but a part of Russian history," according to the Raw Story website.

Moscow has long wanted to have greater control over the archipelago, which has been a center of Russian hunters, whalers and fishermen since the 16th century.

Russian nuclear submarines from the powerful Northern Fleet of Russian forces pass near Bear Island, in the southernmost part of Spitsbergen to reach the North Atlantic.

"Russia's main interest is to avoid a situation where others are aggressively using the islands," said political science professor Arield Mo of Norway's Fridtjof Nansen Institute.

To make sure that happens, he added, they "maintain their presence there and care very much about what's going on in that area."

James Weather, a professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany, said Spitsbergen is "NATO's Achilles heel in the Arctic", because its distance from mainland Norway and "the peculiar legal situation provide a range of potential pretexts for Russian intervention."

"Although the risk of direct military confrontation remains low, Svalbard is particularly vulnerable to a Russian adventure that offers a strategic return to advance Russia's long-term goals of dividing the West and neutralizing NATO," the former British Army officer wrote in 2018.

Norway is trying to downplay Russian grievances, saying it is far from new and insisting that its sovereignty over the islands is no different from any other part of its territory.

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