Problem of Russian cargo delivery to Spitsbergen settled, container ship to arrive in Barentsburg on July 8 - Russian consul

MOSCOW. July 6 (Interfax) - The problem of the delivery of Russian goods to Norway's Spitsbergen island has been settled, Russian Consul General on Spitsbergen Sergei Gushchin said.

"The Russian and Norwegian foreign ministries have been closely in touch all these days, the situation has been settled, and a bypass maneuver has been found," Gushchin said on the Rossiya-24 (VGTRK) television channel.

The state mining company Arktikugol has availed of an opportunity to engage Norwegian transport operators to take the cargo across the Russian-Norwegian border, he said.

"Nobody will detain Norwegian transport operators in Norwegian territory. The container ship left the port of Tromso on July 5 and will reach us in Barentsburg on July 8," he said.

Gushchin said he was speaking not about the two containers that had earlier been stopped at the border but about two new ones, while the previous two are still stuck at the border, "but this is only because of purely technical difficulties of reloading them onto the Norwegian transport."

"I hope they'll be solved shortly and we'll receive the two previously stuck containers within a few days, as well," Gushchin said, adding that the supply of food and technical components on Spitsbergen is stable.

The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said earlier on Wednesday that Norwegian transport operators started shipping Russian goods to the mining settlement of Barentsburg on Spitsbergen.

Russian Federation Council Deputy Chairman Konstantin Kosachyov said at the end of June that Norway refused to admit Russian cargo to Spitsbergen. Kosachyov said the Norwegian Foreign Ministry declined a request by the Arktikugol state trust to allow the transportation of the cargo to Barentsburg, referring to the anti-Russian sanctions.