A shortage of ice-class passenger vessels is limiting Russia’s plans to expand tourism on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Odessa Journal reported on July 16.
Ildar Neverov, head of the Russian state-owned Arktikugol trust, acknowledged that Russia lacks the ice-class vessels needed to carry out the expansion, the report said.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister and presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev announced plans last year to develop tourism infrastructure on Svalbard, including an international scientific and educational centre, alongside a target of 50,000 tourists a year by 2040. Much of that proposed infrastructure work remains undeveloped or on paper only, according to the report.
Arktikugol has said the shortage of vessels suited to high-latitude operations has existed for some time and has worsened since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the international sanctions that followed, the report said.
In the absence of dedicated passenger ships that meet the requirements of the Polar Code, tourists travelling to the Russian settlements on Svalbard are currently offered places on cargo and research vessels, along with smaller boats and yachts operating during the navigation season, according to the report. Vessels meeting Polar Code standards are described as practically absent from Russia’s civilian fleet.
Air access to Svalbard also remains constrained by visa restrictions and sanctions affecting Russian carriers, limiting alternative routes for prospective visitors, the report said.
Svalbard, governed by Norway under the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, hosts a small Russian mining and settlement presence at Barentsburg alongside the Norwegian-administered town of Longyearbyen, the archipelago’s main tourism hub.