[Translated] Russia accuses Norway of militarising Svalbard

**Russia accuses Norway and NATO of militarizing Svalbard in violation of the Svalbard Treaty.**

– Svalbard is increasingly being drawn into Norway’s military and political planning, which involves the United States and NATO, says an announcement from the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday.

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An intensification of hybrid warfare against Norway and the thought of Russian forces landing on Svalbard is just what I needed to start the weekend.

Every accusation is a confession. Most NATOchads thought Russia was gonna go for the Suwalki gap or Gotland, but I guess Svalbard is fair game now.

Not good.

For the record due to a weird treaty situation there is also a somewhat large number of Russian citizens based mostly around a mining community called Barentsburg, they’ve been having [victory day parades](https://www.thebarentsobserver.com/security/russia-stages-militarystyle-propaganda-parade-on-norways-svalbard-archipelago/163025) in Svalbard where they were flying like Ukrainian separatist flags and so on in Svalbard. It’s not difficult to imagine a situation where Russia may try something to “protect” them.

Norway is a part of NATO but it’s not a part of the EU, unfortunately the former is kind of in chaos right now given no one knows what Trump would do if someone were attacked.

Every day my “we need a 5 mile belt of irradiated cobalt between us and Russia” take becomes just slightly less ironic.