“Norway did not give permission for the passage and transit of goods by Russian road carriers, the Arktikugol trust simply agreed with the Norwegian trucking company, it took the goods and transported them across the border,” RIA Novosti quotes him as saying.
Gushchin added that Russian containers would arrive in Barentsburg on Svalbard on July 8.
Earlier, the representative of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, Ane Lunde, explained that the decision to let Russian cargo through the Norwegian border to Svalbard was the result of diplomatic contacts between the two countries.
On June 28, Norway rejected Russia's application for the passage of goods for Russian settlements on Svalbard through the only checkpoint on the Russian-Norwegian border - Storskog.
Gushchin later suggested that the Norwegian authorities did not fully think through all the consequences of this step.