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Svalbard is an icy archipelago, home to fewer than 3,000 people and because of the risk of polar bear attacks it is mandatory to carry a weapon when leaving the cities. It is the northernmost permanently inhabited region of the entire world. And that too NATO’s “Achilles Heel in the Arctic”As you called him once Professor of Security Studies.
Formally, Svalbard is under Norwegian sovereignty – but thanks to a century-old treaty, several countries have the right to exploit its natural resources. In particular, Russia, which has been mining in the region for years, employs mostly Ukrainian workers from the Donbas region. In the abandoned city of PyramidenBust of Lenin and A slogan It says “Communism is our goal”.
▲ Entrance to Pyramid, an abandoned city where Soviet mines operated for decades
Universal Pictures Group via Getty
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