An imposing Russian parade in Svalbard for “Victory Day”: “The commemorations seem more imposing and of a different character than in the past”
Dozens of vehicles displaying Russian flags and flown over by a helicopter paraded on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, in the Arctic, according to images circulating on social networks. During a “military-style propaganda parade” as noted the norwegian newspaper Barents Observe, about fifty 4 x 4s, machines and snowmobiles paraded against a background of martial music in a still snow-covered street in Barentsburg, an atypical Russian mining community, on these lands belonging to a NATO member country. With Spitsbergen as the largest island, Svalbard is located a thousand kilometers from the North Pole.
On this day of celebration in Russia of the victory over Nazi Germany, some drivers who marched behind the vehicle of the Russian consul were dressed in green uniforms evoking military clothes.
This territory twice the size of Belgium is governed by a treaty concluded in 1920 in Paris, which recognizes Norwegian sovereignty but also grants nationals of the contracting parties the right to exploit natural resources there. “on a footing of perfect equality”. It is in this capacity that the Russian state company Trust Arktikugol operates a coal seam in Barentsburg, a village where between 300 and 400 Russian speakers live, mainly Russians and Ukrainians from Donbass, and where a statue of Lenin sits. The treaty also provides that these lands “shall never be used for war purposes”.
For many experts, the Russian presence in Svalbard is largely motivated by the strategic nature of the archipelago, in the middle of the Arctic, in the northern part of an area used by the Northern Fleet to return to the Atlantic Ocean.
In Longyearbyen, the capital of the archipelago, the – Norwegian – governor of Svalbard, Lars Fause, said he had “noted via social networks that a commemoration of May 9 took place in Barentsburg”. “The freedom to gather is valid in Norway”he said, in an email sent to Agence France-Presse by his services. “The commemorations seem more imposing and of a different character than in the past”he also remarked.
Claiming to have been informed of the holding of commemorations without knowing the details, he explained that he had declined, like last year, an invitation to participate. “because of the war in Ukraine”. For its part, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also noted that “in the current situation the commemorations of the “day of victory” have a different content because of the illegal war of Russia in Ukraine”.
“It is understandable that this raises negative reactions”said a spokeswoman for the ministry, Ragnhild Simenstad.