KIRKKENIEMI Russia’s war of aggression arouses fierce emotions in the small town of Kirkoniemi in northern Norway.
When a Russian living in Kirkkoniemi Anton Kalin painted his van in Ukraine’s blue and yellow colors and demanded Vladimir Putin stopping, someone attacked the car.
– Someone broke both side mirrors, the additional light and the windshield washer, says Kalinin.
The culprit was not caught, but according to Kalinin, all Russians living or visiting the city know about his car.
– Unfortunately, many Russians here support Putin, says Kalinin.
About 400 Russians live permanently in the Kirkniemi region. Before the war, there was a lot of cooperation with Russia in Kirkkoniemi, cross-border trade was lively and it was easy to have relatives across the border. Many Norwegian men found a spouse in the Murmansk region of Russia.
The war became a watershed, forcing Russians living in Norway to take a stand on the most pressing question: Do you support or oppose Putin’s war?
Since then, the war has divided the Kirkkoniemi Russians. Opponents of Putin dare to speak their opinion because it is in line with Norwegian public opinion. Putin’s supporters, on the other hand, prefer to remain silent.
In Kirkkoniemi, asked several Russians who support Putin for an interview. Some of them live in Norway and some were visiting from Russia. None of them agreed to share their opinions publicly.
Putin’s opponents, on the other hand, do not mince their words. In Kalinin’s opinion, the people of Kirkenes must support Ukraine and show it. With his car, he wanted to set an example.
– It felt bad. What do Ukrainians think when there were no Ukrainian flags to be seen anywhere. The city must have said that it does not want any conflict with Russia, Kalinin tells by phone.
The protest car travels from one key location to another
Kalinin always parks his car in the most visible place in the city center. When he went on holiday in the south in October, the car stood along the entrance road to Kirkkoniemi, so that as many people coming to the center as possible would notice it.
Kalinin’s car was particularly visible across the street to the red brick office building of the Kimek shipyard.
Kimek is the most important industrial company in Kirkkoniemi. Its massive hall rises high above the rooftops of the idyllic wooden town.
Things are not going well at the shipyard. It is focused on refurbishing Russian fishing boats, which before the war brought more than two-thirds of the company’s turnover.
Due to the sanctions against Russia, business is declining. In August, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted an exception to the sanctions, so that the shipyard can finish the repair of one Russian fishing vessel under construction.
New customers have to be found in the west, and it is not easy, because Kirkkoniemi is far from everything except the Kola peninsula.
met Kimek’s CEO Greger Mannsverkin, but he did not give an interview or permission to shoot at the shipyard.
The start of Russia’s war and the economic sanctions that followed have been a very hard blow to Kirkniemi’s economy. In Mannsverk’s opinion, neither the politicians in Oslo nor the public are helping the shipyard.
The Russian Consulate General reveals the importance of the small town
When Kalinin’s van is not in front of the dock, it is often parked in protest a couple of blocks away in front of the Russian Consulate General.
It is extraordinary that the main consulate of any country is located in a small town like Kirkkoniemi. The Consulate General tells about the importance of the region to Russia. The building covers the entire small block.
Consul General of Russia Nikolai Konygin did not give an interview. The consulate appealed to his urgency.
As the official representative of Russia, Konygin has caused a worsening in his position.
The most recent incident happened in October, when the people of Kirkenes celebrated the anniversary of their town’s liberation. The soldiers of the Red Army liberated Kirkkoniemi from the occupation of Nazi Germany in October 1944.
Konygin made a speech and laid a wreath at the monument to Soviet soldiers, even though he had been specifically asked to to stay away.
Norwegian Broadcasting According to NRK municipal manager Magnus Mæland was enraged that Konygin laid the Russian wreath on the municipal wreath.
Mæland moved the Russian wreath to the side, but after that the Russian woman returned it to the top.
In the end, the municipal wreath ended up in the middle and the Russian wreaths around it. Local online publication The Barents Observer has published the video from the transfer of wreaths.
Mæland, who took office in October, has promised to take a stricter line towards Russia than his predecessor.
Only a few Russians protest against the war
The Russian Consulate General in Kirkkoniemi is the place where the opponents of the war demonstrate their opinion. There is often a souvenir seller in the group Lyudmila Willewho was born on the Russian side in Arkhangelsk.
According to Wille, only a dozen of the city’s hundreds of Russians participate in the demonstrations. Russians are very divided in their attitude to the war.
– I understand that people are afraid and do not want difficulties for their relatives in Russia. But there are also those here who support madness, Wille says, and by madness he means the Russian war of aggression.
Wille runs a souvenir shop in the harbor where the Hurtigruten ship route along the Norwegian coast ends. There are still plenty of cruise tourists, but Russian motorists are hardly seen anymore.
The sale of souvenirs has decreased sharply. All other shops are in trouble. Three times more shopping space has been built than what the municipality’s own residents need, because the Russians’ shopping tourism was so large-scale.
Now shopping has faded.
– It is almost impossible to get a visa to Norway. I can’t even invite my sister over, Wille says.
He understands well the reason for the restrictions and considers Putin’s regime a tragedy for Russia.
– One of my best friends considers me almost an enemy because I don’t support what my home country is doing now, Wille says.
According to Wille, the conversation with Russian relatives has become difficult.
– In a way, I’m a coward. It is much easier not to talk about what is happening now. Many people don’t want to talk but build some kind of protective shell around themselves, says Wille.
We’d rather talk about the weather than the war.
There is a place in the center of Kirkniemi where you can talk about both. A public work of art, which is at the mercy of both weather and vandalism, has become a symbol of war.
A decommissioned Russian border laundry ended up in Kirkkoniemi years ago as part of an art project. Its fate tells about changes in the climate of opinion.
Passers-by vent their feelings on the old border laundry
– When the war broke out, someone moved the border laundry. We put it back, but the next week the laundry was spilled, says the Russian Yevgeny Goman.
Goman works as a producer at Pikene på Broen, a company that organizes cultural events. The company operates in the Terminal B cultural center, in front of which the border laundry has been on the downtown pedestrian street for years.
Both the war’s supporters and its opponents have left their mark on Rajapykki. Borderline laundry has been cut, tangled and statements have been glued to it.
– This border crossing became public art, made by people themselves. We even set up an Instagram account called borderpole27 for borderpoles, through which people can follow what’s happening with borderpoles, says Goman.
Before, the rescue service helped Russia, now Ukraine
However, Kirkkoniemi has not been satisfied with just expressing opinions, but has also taken action. More than a hundred war refugees from Ukraine have been accepted in the small town.
Last February, the city’s rescue service took its old equipment as a gift to Ukraine. More equipment was sent from elsewhere, and in the end there were no less than 23 fire engines and two ambulances in the convoy.
A fireman was on the way Orjan Rasmussenwhich introduces the Kirkkoniemi fire station to .
The change is quite a bit. Before the war, the rescue service practiced cooperation with Russia, among other things, in the fight against oil.
– I met firefighters there, and they felt the same as here. There used to be connections, but not anymore. All that is over now, Rasmussen says.
Kyräily has crept into human relationships in Kirkkoniemi as well.
– It’s quiet. It’s hard to be open and say what you think or go fishing with those who disagree. It’s a big difference from before, says Rasmussen.
Rasmussen says that he has noticed that there are only a few Russians who openly support or oppose the war. The rest fall silent.
– Most people of Russian background don’t say much of anything, Rasmussen states.