As if 2 years of Covid-19 were not enough for all who want to or who need to travel: pilots of SAS are on strike since negotiations scheduled until yesterday (Monday) failed. Up to 250 SAS flights are expected to be cancelled now every day as long as the strike lasts.
That includes flights to and from Longyearbyen.
It is an issue that has kept Norway and Russia busy already for some weeks: a delivery for Barentsburg, said to include mainly food, is kept on hold at the border between Russia and north Norway. The delivery was to be transported over land to Tromsø and from there by ship to Barentsburg.
Barentsburg during brighter times (here in 2019).
But due to the sanctions introduced after the Russian war of aggression and destruction began in February, Norway does not allow the goods into the country. The Spitsbergen treaty guarantees all signatory parties – this includes Russia – free access to Svalbard, but according to Norwegian authorities, this does not automatically include the right to chose a route through the Norwegian mainland. Norwegian officials say that Russia at any time has the opportunity to ship goods from their own harbours to Barentsburg. Svalbard ports are not included in the ban on Russian ships in Norwegian ports, and officials indicate that Norway would consider an excemption to the ban on Russian planes on Norwegian airports if the Russian side filed an application for a flight to Longyearbyen.
The Russian reaction is mainly irritation, political threats – recently, Russian representatives have repeatedly pointed out that Norway breaks the Spitsbergen treaty – and allegedly cyberattacks. There have been several cyberattacks on public Norwegian websites recently, which Norwegian authorities associate with Russian hacker groups, according to Svalbardposten and other Norwegian media channels.
At some stage, Russian representatives raised concerns about a serious shortage of supplies in Barentsburg, which was described as an overreaction by Norway. Now it is said that the supply in Barentsburg is stable, due to deliveries from other sources, according to NRK.