A law dis­pu­te is beco­ming a poli­ti­cal issue: In 2007, the Rus­si­an heli­c­op­ter com­pa­ny Spark Plus ope­ra­ted seve­ral heli­c­op­ter flights from Kapp Heer (Barents­burg) which were not cover­ed by the licence issued by Nor­we­gi­an aut­ho­ri­ties, inclu­ding flights for Rus­si­an sci­en­tists and for a film pro­ject. Accor­ding to Nor­we­gi­an offi­ci­als, the licence covers only flights bet­ween Barents­burg and Lon­gye­ar­by­en and bey­ond this area only flights direct­ly con­nec­ted to the acti­vi­ties of the Rus­si­an mining com­pa­ny Trust Ark­ti­ku­gol (TA). TA has rejec­ted a fine, now the case will be taken up by a court in Nor­way. Bey­ond this, the mat­ter is dis­cus­sed on a poli­ti­cal level. Accor­ding to the Rus­si­ans, the Nor­we­gi­an pro­ce­du­re offends the Spits­ber­gen Trea­ty. The Nor­we­gi­ans argue that rele­vant parts of the trea­ty con­cern govern­men­tal acti­vi­ties, but not tho­se of com­pa­nies or pri­va­te per­sons. In prac­ti­ce, the situa­ti­on means a mono­po­ly of the Nor­we­gi­an heli­c­op­ter com­pa­ny Air­lift in Sval­bard.

After mine acci­dents and other tech­ni­cal pro­blems in Barents­burg, mining will only start again in sum­mer 2009. TA has announ­ced to open a “shop­ping cent­re” in Barents­burg and to moder­ni­se other infra­struc­tu­re (hotel, tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons etc.).

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten