unsaveSave
expand-left
full screen Archive image from the abandoned Russian mining community Pyramiden on Svalbard. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT
Last year, a seven-meter high wooden cross suddenly appeared in the disused mining town of Pyramiden on Svalbard. Behind the cross stands the Russian state.
The Russian Orthodox cross on a mountainside was assembled by the Russian state mining company Trust Arktikugol, which, according to the Svalbardposten, had not sought permission for the construction.
Not okay, thought the Norwegian authorities of the Arctic archipelago.
After a year of dispute, the Russians have now got it right. The cross may be set up, but in a place some distance from the original one.
Kari Aga Myklebost, who researches Russian historical description at the University of Tromsø, believes that the Norwegian authorities were right to avoid conflict with the Russian state. But Norway should not be naive in the matter, she warns.
– The cross is a symbolic political act. We see that the Russians use similar instruments to spread patriotism and nationalism, she tells Svalbardposten.