Cold War legacies in Russia’s Svalbard policy - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 28

a radical downsizing (and closing down) of Russian mining activities on the
archipelago, which, at least officially, sustained the settlement in Barentsburg.
Whereas the number of Norwegians on Svalbard has almost doubled from
the 1970s to the present day, from approximately 1,000 to approximately
1,800, the number of Russians and Ukrainians on the archipelago has fallen
from more than 3,000 at the height of the Cold War to less than 500 in
2007 (Deshayes 2007:12). This development is often seen in Russia as the
result of a deliberate Norwegian policy to 'oust' the Svalbard Russians and
reduce Russia's influence on Svalbard affairs (Rivetov 2003). At the same
time, Russian subsidies to the mining operations in Barentsburg, which in
2000 was estimated at NOK 40 million (USD 7.5 million) (Åtland 2004:3),
indicated that Russia, regardless of the costs, found it imperative to maintain
at least one Russian settlement on the archipelago.
Despite these many securitizing moves, it is unclear whether the issue
was ever successfully securitized. The perception that environmental protec-
tion legislation served Norwegian security policy objectives was apparently
stronger and more widely felt in the conservative mid-level of the Russian
bureaucracy (Jørgensen 2004:187). The environmental protection issue
was predominantly handled on a lower level, that is, between the Governor
of Svalbard and Trust Arktikugol. Although Trust Arktikugol strongly
objected to the Norwegian plans (Pedersen 2003), it did not share the view
that they were aimed at driving Russia off the archipelago. For instance,
Director Vadim Mardanov of the mining company found that assertion to
be far-fetched (Jørgensen 2003:40). Nevertheless, the Governor of Svalbard,
Odd Olsen Ingerø, found the responses of the company to be more assertive
than expected, noting that the issue was 'considerably more conflict-laden'
than he had anticipated. 10 Eventually, in 2003, the Coles Bay area was with-
drawn from the Protection Plan on the Governor's recommendation (Pedersen
2002:3). Both of the factors mentioned above, the underlying Norwegian-
Russian 'value conflict' and the pre-history of controversies over the legality
of Norwegian environmental protection measures on Svalbard, may have
served as 'facilitating conditions' for securitization of the 2001 Environmental
Protection Act. At the same time, the securitizing moves were, at least to
some extent, neutralized by Norway's willingness to address the Russian con-
cerns, as indicated by the somewhat controversial decision to take Coles Bay
out of the Protection Plan area.
Case 3: Norwegian fishery enforcement measures
in the FPZ
The waters south of Svalbard have long been considered to be of military-
strategic importance. The Soviet Union, largely locked in by land and ice,
had few outlets to the Atlantic Ocean, and post-Soviet Russia has even fewer.
The Northern Fleet, based on the Kola Peninsula, is the country's most