BBC Assignment “Norway-Russia: an Arctic friendship under threat”.
This can be a somewhat hit and miss subscription, being a somewhat large bucket for various BBC audio journalism productions, but this one is a gem. Straight off the bat the title got my attention. What friendship is there between Norway and Russia? Aren’t the old Cold War lines still largely intact, and isn’t everyone west of what was the Iron Curtain, and even some behind it, pretty unified in their opposition to Putin’s Russia? Wasn’t the Winter War between Finland and the USSR in the 40’s a major black eye to the former, and isn’t Finland pretty much Norway? Those were the questions just the title raised in me, and I learnt much more during the twenty-minute program.
From the shownotes —
In Norway, the sacking of a newspaper editor, allegedly after pressure from Russia, has caused a political storm over media freedom, and raised questions over what price the country should pay for good relations with its powerful eastern neighbour. Thomas Nilsen is a veteran environmental activist who edited a paper in the far north of Norway, in a region which has enjoyed a unique cross-border relationship with Russia. Now that’s threatened by rising tension between Russia and NATO. And relations have been further strained by the flow of refugees, now coming through Russia into the far north of Norway. Tim Whewell reports on what it means for the Norwegian outpost of Kirkenes, where Norwegians and Russians work closely together in the oil and fishing business and where cooperation and friendship go back decades.
So, starting from the top with a bit of further info. There’s an online newspaper called the Barents Observer, that serves both the community of northern Norway, and also across the Russian border to the population of Murmansk, Alexandrovsk, and Kola (which not incidentally boasts a primary Russian navy presence, being the only ice-free port open to the Russian Federation on the North Atlantic). The editor of the paper, following the Crimean annexation/invasion/border redrawing, published pieces critical of the Russian government, and was prompty fired. Whether it was pressure from the FSB, Russian security and intelligence service, on Norweigian politicians, or solely the decision of the paper’s owners is unknown. Though, there have been rumours and anonymous leaks implicating the FSB.
What was curious to me was why an editor from Norway being critical of Russia would ruffle the feathers of anyone outside Russia. Well, Norway and Russia share not only a border, but also a close relationship that dates back to the second world war. While the Finns fought the Russians, the Red Army drove out the Nazi occupation force that held Norway. One town, Kirkenes, was utterly destroyed in that fighting, with only eleven buildings left standing, after air raids so numerous that only Malta was hit from the air more frequently during that global conflict. Even today, the Red Army of the USSR, for their actions in liberating the town and Norway in general, retain a level of respect from the population.
Called a laboratory by several people in this program, Kirkenes is somewhat of a natural experiment, where interaction and freer borders between Russia and a NATO, if more friendly, nation occur. For the local population of the area, the border is permeable, with freedom to cross. Russians, in the hundreds of thousands, 300K+ in 2014, pour across into this town of 10,000 to shop at the three shopping malls that have grown to accommodate the trade. The Russian shoppers buy everything, says the mayor, from cars and TVs, to liquor, more confident in the quality and integrity of a Norweigian product. The locals meanwhile cross to buy cheap vodka to enjoy in the sauna. It’s a unique situation.
Russia is making moves on the international stage, and that’s heightening tensions and leading all sorts of people, myself included, to drag the old scarecrows of the Cold War out of the closet. While Russian regulars to Kirkenes make pointed ‘jokes’ to the BBC reporter about the Murmansk population wanting to join Norway to balance the scales after the absorption of Crimea, as they feel a closer kinship to their Norweigian neighbours than the muscotive oligarchs, the swell of patriotic nationalism is a visible force in Russia. Putin’s public approval is jealousy-inducing to Western political leaders, and he has reacted to economic sanctions with by the banning of Western food products, Norweigian salmon included. Russia has also enacted laws requiring foreign-owned or partially-owned businesses to be listed publicly as ‘foreign agents’.
Then there’s the migrants. With the Meditteranean turned deadly from ramshackle boats and opportunist smugglers, the walls of Hungary, Austria, and a growing number of other central European nations, the refugee stream has been turned north. Tiny Kirkenes now has days where two hundred refugees arrive seeking asylum. This would be a part of a larger, and deeply tragic human exodus, but it has the addition of the possible use of the refugee crisis as cover for a Russian political maneuver. Afghans, and likely many other nationalities of refugee or migrant, have joined in the Syrian and Eritrean stream, but stemming from closer headwaters, Russia itself. People who have lived for years in Russia are now crossing the border into Norway, unobstructed by the three, repeat three, FSB checkpoints in place, to claim asylum from this relatively tiny NATO nation of five million.
The mayor of Kirkenes would say so only as a personal opinion on the program, but holds a belief that Russia is purposefully enacting a policy to push its own refugee and migrant population into the stream some jingoistic Europeans are calling a flood. The sheer number of new arrivals does pose a valid problem to existing systems, infrastructure, and funding, and could be to the benefit of a Russia now clearly intent on positioning itself as a rival to, and perhaps the dominant force of, Europe.
This closely clustered and brightly coloured town of Kirkenes, that has enjoyed a special relationship and beneficial cross-pollination with Russia for decades, now finds itself the victim of Russia’s actions, intentional or not. Despite Norway being a NATO member, an alliance formed specifically to control, contain, and potentially contend with the power Russia once was, Kirkenes itself could not be called an enemy of Russia. It could apparently be strongly defended that the town has instead been an extremely good neighbour, to the Murmansk Oblast and Russia in general. Hopefully, the border will remain open, and the interchange of goods and good cheer will continue. As said in the program “if we can sing together, how can we fight each other?”.
