Russia brings its own “police” car to Svalbard

The Barents Observer reports that Trust Arktikugol (Russia's state-owned company on Svalbard), has put a new car into service in Barentsburg that looks like a Russian police vehicle. The car is white with a blue stripe along the side. In Russia, only law enforcement bodies under the Interior Ministry (MVD) may buy vehicles with that livery. The visible difference is the word in the stripe: Administratsiya (Administration) appears where Politsiya (Police) would be, in the same fonts. The roof lights seem to be red and white instead of blue.

Section 165 of Norway's Criminal Code prohibits foreign marks or designs that pose as a public authority or could easily be mistaken for one. Arktikugol did not answer the newspaper's questions. In a VKontakte post, the company said the cars delivered to Barentsburg give the mining service up-to-date four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Kari Aga Myklebost, professor of Russian history at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, has studied Russian hybrid operations on Svalbard for years. She said Arktikugol is deliberately creating a grey zone situation to provoke reactions and to see how Norwegian authorities respond. She said a firm Norwegian response could bring Russian accusations of discrimination and Russophobia, which she called not unlikely because Norway recently acquired police cars for Longyearbyen.

Sysselmesteren (the Governor of Svalbard), Lars Fause, would not give an explicit verdict on the car. He said every vehicle used on Svalbard must comply with the Road Traffic Act and the Vehicle Regulations. Fause said this car lost its plates in July because they were Russian. He added that not every rule valid on the mainland applies on the archipelago, and that any violation found will be handled case by case.

The Governor's office confirms that vehicles on Svalbard's roads must carry the archipelago's own plates, black with yellow letters. The newspaper says pictures that Trust Arktikugol shared online, one from this spring and one from this week, show white home-made plates on the car.