Consultations are underway in Moscow and Oslo over the refusal to allow Russian cargo to Svalbard, as the Norwegian authorities cut off Russian food supplies.
This is stated in the statements of the Consul General of Russia in Spitsbergen, Sergei Goshin, on the air of the Rossiya 24 TV channel, where he stated that Moscow would give an appropriate response to violations of the 1920 treaty.
Since April 29, Norway has closed the only checkpoint on the border with Russia at Storskog for trucks coming from Russia, which jeopardized the arrival of food to Svalbard. Therefore, the Russian embassy in Norway sent a note with a request to resume the transfer, but on Tuesday, June 29, Oslo rejected this request.
Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev earlier said that Norway’s refusal to let goods into Russian villages on Svalbard is immoral and violates human rights, and pointed out that Oslo, by such actions, also violates the provisions of the 1920 Paris Treaty.
The Russian mining village of Barentsburg, located on the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, remains without supplies due to the position of Norway, which refused to lift sanctions on Russian supplies. The village of Barentsburg is usually supplied from Murmansk, from where goods are delivered to Tromsø through the only border crossing, and then transported to the islands by one dry cargo ship “Bering”, which leaves for the archipelago every 10 days. About 500 people. people living in Barentsburg, including shift workers and miners of the Russian Arctic Ogol Foundation.
Source: TASS