Publication

This report looks at Russian perceptions and interests at the Svalbard archipelago and in the Fishery Protection Zone. Based on Russia’s allocation of federal investments to the archipelago by the end of the 1990s and its efforts to open a new coal mine, it argues whether there is any economic reason to continue the mining activity in Barentsburg. It explores Russia's skepticism toward its rich western neighbors and concludes that various bureaucratic Russian structures pursuing their own interests in Svalbard affairs, have managed to influence the general discourse and present any unresolved issue as a zero-sum game between nations.