Abstract
This article studies Russia's stance on the legal status and regime of the Spitsbergen's waters and the logic behind it. Russia has traditionally disagreed with the Norwegian policies related to maritime areas beyond the Spitsbergen's territorial waters. In respect to both the Fisheries Protection Zone (FPZ) and the shelf around Spitsbergen, Russia has strongly opposed the unilateral nature of the Norwegian measures. In the case of the FPZ, Russia has asserted that the maritime areas beyond the territorial waters constitute high seas, at the same time cooperating with Norway on managing the living resources basing on bilateral and international arrangements. Whereas in the case of the seabed off Spitsbergen, Russia has recognized that the archipelago generates the shelf, which is subject to the Spitsbergen Treaty's regime, accepting the equal rights of access to the shelf of all the signatories to the Treaty. This article argues that in the long run, Russia is interested in maintaining the current status-quo in the issues related to the Spitsbergen's waters. The paper also discusses possible implications of the 2010 Russia-Norway delimitation Treaty on the Russian position towards the Spitsbergen waters.
Published Version
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