Relations with neighbouring countries were high on the agenda as the Security Council this week discussed issues of national security in the Northwestern Federal District. According to Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a series of new regional threats are emerging. Among them is the possible inclusion of Finland and Sweden in NATO, he told the assembly.

In the room were high-ranking representatives of law enforcement authorities, governors and other leaders from the region, among them presidential envoy for the Northwest Russian Federal District Aleksandr Gutsan.

The protection of the border to Finland and the Nordic countries must be strengthened, he underlined. He also specifically highlighted relations with Estonia and the disputed territory between the countries.

”In connection with the emergence of new threats following the possible membership in NATO of Finland and Sweden, the shutdown of cross-border cooperation by European countries with our country, as well as in connection with the lack of official demarcation of the border between Russia and Estonia, additional measures are needed on the streamlining of forces and equipment for the protection of the state border,” Patrushev underlined. […]

Murmansk Governor Andrei Chibis was one of the regional leaders present in the meeting. In a comment, Chibis says his region “always has been open for dialogue and cooperation,” and that a close and good neighbourly relationship with the Scandinavian countries have been developed over years.

But now has come another era, he explains.

“Nikolai Patruchev rightly highlighted the need to strengthen the protection of our borders based on the current situation,” he writes on Telegram.

According to Chibis, Murmansk is now orienting itself towards other markets.

“We are now rebuilding our economy based on the new realities and work with partners from friendly countries,” he writes on his VK page. Läs artikel

1. The parties acknowledge the unique situation of the Kaliningrad Region as part of the Russian Federation but separated from the rest of the Federation by other states. With the aim of further
developing the strategic partnership between EU and Russia, the parties therefore agree to make a
special effort to accommodate the concerns on both sides related to the future transit of persons and
goods between the Kaliningrad Region and other parts of Russia, and to intensify their cooperation
to promote the social and economic development of the region as a whole. Läs överenskommelsen

Överenskommelsen mellan Litauen och Ryssland 1993 om vägtransporter finns att läsa här

[…] Nuclear submarines from Russia’s powerful Northern Fleet also have to pass close to Svalbard’s southernmost Bear Island to get into the North Atlantic.

Russia’s ”main interest is to avoid a situation (where) others use (the islands) offensively,” said political scientist Arild Moe of Norway’s Fridtjof Nansen Institute. To make sure that happens they ”maintain a reasonable presence and are very attentive to what is going on,” he added.

After failing to get joint authority of the islands at the end of World War II, Russia is now pushing — without much success — for ”bilateral consultations” to lift the brakes on its activities. […]

Moscow regularly accuses Oslo of violating one of the most important articles of the 1920 treaty which effectively makes Svalbard a demilitarised zone. It protests every time a Norwegian frigate docks or NATO lawmakers visit, and is particularly wary of the gigantic Svalsat satellite station near Longyearbyen. [… ]

Svalbard is ”the Achilles heel of NATO in the Arctic”, said James Wither, a professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany, because its distance from mainland Norway and ”peculiar legal status provides a range of possible pretexts for Russian intervention.

”Although the danger of a direct military confrontation remains low, Svalbard is particularly vulnerable to a Russian gamble that offers the strategic payoff of advancing Russia’s long-term objectives of dividing the West and neutralising NATO,” the former British Army officer wrote in 2018.

Norway tries to play down Russian grievances, saying that they are far from new and insists that its sovereignty over the islands is no different to any other part of its territory.

Praised for his rapport with his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov when he was foreign minister between 2005 and 2012, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store is an apostle of Oslo’s ”High North, low tensions” doctrine. […]

Like its high-latitude neighbours Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, Svalbard seems to be in China’s sights. Indeed it now defines itself as a ”near-Arctic” state and wants to establish a ”Polar Silk Road”.

With the region heating up three times faster than the planet, shrinking ice floes are opening up economic opportunities and maritime routes, although some are more theoretical than real. With new fishing grounds and easier access to potential resources like oil and gas fields, everyone is trying to get a foot in the door. Läs artikel

Turkish obstructionism against Swedish and Finnish NATO membership, its limited offensive in Iraq, and its prospective offensive in Syria have grabbed international attention. But more significant is Turkey’s growing diplomatic tension with Greece, an ever-festering lesion that threatens to burst.

Considering Turkey’s domestic situation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States must be wary. Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan could capitalize on international distraction and wage a diversionary war to boost his popularity, a conflict that would disrupt NATO’s cohesion and threaten the alliance. Läs artikel

The war in Ukraine is a multi-dimensional disaster, which is likely to get much worse in the foreseeable future. When a war is successful, little attention is paid to its causes, but when the outcome is disastrous, understanding how it happened becomes paramount. People want to know: how did we get into this terrible situation? […]

Simply put, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is a colossal disaster, which as I noted at the start of my talk, will lead people all around the world to search for its causes. Those who believe in facts and logic will quickly discover that the United States and its allies are mainly responsible for this train wreck. The April 2008 decision to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO was destined to lead to conflict with Russia. The Bush administration was the principal architect of that fateful choice, but the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations have doubled down on that policy at every turn and America’s allies have dutifully followed Washington’s lead. Even though Russian leaders made it perfectly clear that bringing Ukraine into NATO would be crossing “the brightest of red lines,” the United States refused to accommodate Russia’s deepest security concerns and instead moved relentlessly to make Ukraine a Western bulwark on Russia’s border. Läs artikel

Läs också historik om Ukraina-Nato.

– Russland brukte plattformene som en militær installasjon for å lagre utstyr til luftforsvar, radarkrigføring og rekognosering, sier talsperson Sergij Bratsjuk fra militæradministrasjonen i Odesa tirsdag.

Det skulle bidra til at Russland skulle klare å oppnå full kontroll over den nordvestlige delen av Svartehavet, ifølge Bratsjuk. Krim-halvøya er folkerettslig en del av Ukraina, men ble annektert av Russland i 2014. Russland meldte om angrepet mandag og sa at det var boreplattformene til Tsjernomorneftegaz, et olje- og gasselskap som opererer på Krim-halvøya, som ble angrepet. Det var tidligere eid og driftet av det ukrainske gasselskapet Naftogaz.

Den prorussiske lederen for myndighetene på Krim-halvøya sa mandag at sju personer er savnet etter angrepet. Läs artikel

Viktor Vorobyev has been arrested for his participation in an anti-war rally and repeatedly bashed Putin’s regional establishment. In May, the member of the State Council in the Komi Republic became the first Russian regional legislator to be put on the country’s list of so-called Foreign Agents.

“This is an unjust and immoral war that will bring Russia and Ukraine nothing but blood, tears and poverty,” Vorobyev underlined in an address recorded only few days after the massive Russian onslaught on the neighbouring country.

“There can be found no justification for this war in international law, and the Russian political and military leadership’s violation of the UN Charter is evident for the whole Free World,” he stressed, and added that he “without conditions condemns the attack on Ukraine and calls for immediate end to war actions.” Läs artikel

The secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, assured that Moscow will adopt measures that would have a “serious negative impact” on Lithuania if the partial blockade of some products to the enclave of Kaliningrad is not lifted. Vilnius defends that it is only applying the sanctions imposed by the European Union. […]

Visiting the area, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, warned that Russia “will undoubtedly react to these hostile actions” and anticipated that the possible measures would cause a “serious negative impact” on the Lithuanian population, although he did not specify what they would be. These would represent a response to the blockade imposed by the EU on products such as steel and other ferrous metals, cement, alcohol and fertilizers.

The Russian authorities assure that traffic has been affected by both highways and railways and that the blockade reaches other basic products, accusations that were denied by Vilnius.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte stated that the restrictions affect only products included in the latest EU punishment package and that “the transport of all other goods that are not sanctioned or not yet subject to sanctions continues, while just like passenger traffic.

The president pointed out that the Russian complaints are part of her propaganda campaign and ironized about Moscow’s complaints about the alleged violation of the agreement for Kaliningrad, signed between Russia and the EU when Lithuania joined the bloc in 2002. “I don’t know if Is there any international treaty that Russia has not yet violated,” Simonyte questioned. […]

According to the Russian Government, the EU measures violate the 1994 Partnership and Cooperation Agreement and the 2002 Joint Declaration on transit between Kaliningrad and the rest of the territory of the Russian Federation. Läs artikel