Russian Fishing Vessels Repeatedly Cross Svalbard Cables, Raising Security Questions

High North News reports that publicly available AIS data shows Russian fishing vessels passing over the route of the Svalbard Undersea Cable System several times in recent days. The tracks show multiple passages by each ship, not one transit. The vessels named are Kurshskaya Kosa, Kapitan Sulimov, Bootes, Arctica, Mekhanik S. Agapov and the factory trawler Lira. Lira drew Norwegian counterintelligence attention earlier, after communications equipment was found aboard.

The ships are in waters open to Russian fishing under arrangements Norway and Russia have kept for decades. These include a 2026 agreement on shared Barents Sea stocks such as cod and haddock. The outlet says the movements are not in themselves a sign of spying or sabotage. It also says no public evidence shows an attempt to interfere with the cables, and that AIS cannot reveal the purpose of the passes or what gear is in the water. Elizabeth Buchanan, who studies polar geopolitics at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, calls it a dual use challenge: within the rules, yet unsettling for the state concerned.

In 2022 Oslo confined exempted Russian vessels to Tromsø, Kirkenes and Båtsfjord, where they are inspected. In July 2025, after an EU decision, Norway sanctioned Norebo and Murman Seafood. Norway said both were tied to a Russian state-backed intelligence campaign aimed at underwater infrastructure. Their vessels were refused licences for 2026. Police searched Lira and its sister ship Ester at Kirkenes in November 2022, finding older radio equipment. The radios were Soviet-era sets common on fishing boats. No public finding says Lira used them for intelligence.

A Space Norway fiber-optic line to the mainland failed in January 2022, one of two such links. Investigators judged human activity the probable cause. AIS showed the trawler Melkart 5 repeatedly over the route beforehand, more than 30 times in two days by first reports and more than 100 by later ones. Police closed the case for lack of evidence. In 2021 about 4 km of a Lofoten-Vesterålen Ocean Observatory cable moved. About 3 km were recovered, dragged as far as 11 km.