Russia–Norway border
Encyclopedia
The border between Russia
and Norway
, formerly the border between the Soviet Union
and the NATO member state (from 1949) Norway, consists of a 196 kilometres (121.8 mi) long land borderline, from the Finnish
border to the coastline at Grense Jakobselv
in northernmost Norway and north-west Russia, and a maritime border which extends into the Arctic Ocean
. The Norwegian side of the border is located entirely within the county of Finnmark
.
While the border area was regarded as peripheral within both Norway and Russia in much of its history, it became of high military importance during the Cold War
. During this period, it was Norway's best guarded border, and Norway maintained a large military presence on the border and in the county of Finnmark, which was considered to be a buffer zone
against the Soviet Union by NATO. There were plans for evacuating the whole county using scorched earth
tactics in the event of a Soviet invasion.
Between the dissolution of the Soviet Union
and the NATO enlargement in 2004, Norway was the only NATO country which shared a land border with Russia (during the Cold War
, Turkey
too shared a border with the Soviet Union
). Norway's special position, as both NATO member and neighbor of Russia, ensured that Russia–Norway border relations was a relevant matter for other NATO allies. After the end of the Cold War, writes a political scientist, a "decline in allied interest" took place, leaving "Norway somewhat alone in managing its relationship with Russia".
The first border agreement that is known between today's Russia and Norway dates back to 1326, and the Novgorod Republic
. The agreement, a peace treaty, was concerning taxation in the border area.
The current border between Norway and Russia follows the old Soviet-Norwegian border. Starting from the Three-country border cairn
, the border follows the river Pasvikelva until it deviates near Boris Gleb . The last part of the border follows the river Jakobselva
until its outlet into the Varangerfjord
at Grense Jakobselv
.
Between 1920 and 1944 there was no land border between Norway and the Soviet Union as the Treaty of Tartu
awarded Petsamo
to Finland as its land corridor to the Barents Sea
. In the Moscow Truce 1944 Finland had to cede Petsamo to the Soviet Union.
During World War II
northern Norway served as as the staging area for the German attack on Murmansk
. The Soviet Union made an excursion over the border in 1944, specifically with the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive which aimed to extinguish the German military forces in the area
. Soviet forces took the town of Kirkenes
, which had been evacuated by the Germans who used scorched earth
tactics, on 24 October 1944; Soviet troops continued west to Tana
. The troops withdrew in September 1945.
, the Soviet Union was considered Norway's main enemy and Norway maintained a large military presence on the border. Norwegian government plans for the defense of Finnmark
against the Soviet Union during the Cold War were based on using scorched earth tactics in the event of the Soviets crossing the border. The whole county of Finnmark was regarded by NATO as a buffer zone
. Norwegian military leaders regarded the population in the county as potentially unreliable, and did not trust that they would be willing to defend their country against intruders, on account of the county's special ethnic and political composition (Sami people
and a higher number of communist sympathizers than elsewhere). A Soviet border provocation on 7 June 1968, which has been regarded as serious by historians, together with the invasion of Czechoslovakia
that year and a general increase in Soviet military activity on the Norwegian border, contributed to a large increase in the funding for the Norwegian military presence on the Norwegian-Soviet border in Finnmark.
Nevertheless, in spite of the decades of cold war on the border, it has been said that the Russia–Norway border is the only one of Russia's borders where an open war between the two bordering countries has not taken place.
There is only one legal crossing point, at Storskog
(Norway) and Boris Gleb (Russia), on the E105 road
some 15 km east of Kirkenes.
were agreed upon in a treaty from 1957.
Negotiations on the outside marine border were initiated in 1970. Norway claimed, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
Article 15 and the Convention on the High Seas
, that the border should follow the midline principle, the border being defined by midpoints between the nearest land area or islands, as is normal practice internationally. The Soviet Union claimed, based on a decision by Joseph Stalin
from 1926, which was not recognized by any other country than the Soviet Union, that a "sector principle" should apply, such that the border should follow meridian line
s. Most of the disputed area was within what would normally be considered Norwegian according to the relevant international treaties. In 1975 the two countries agreed upon a moratorium
prohibiting exploration for oil and gas in the disputed area.
In 1978 a temporary agreement regulating fishery
in a 60000 km² (23,166.1 sq mi) zone, named the in some documents from the same time, was signed, which has since been renewed annually. From the Norwegian side, the agreement was negotiated by Labour politician Jens Evensen
and his protegé Arne Treholt
, who was later exposed as a Soviet spy and convicted of treason. The agreement was highly controversial in Norway. Many Norwegians believed that Evensen and Treholt gave too many concessions to the Soviet Union, and that they were motivated by Soviet sympathies. The agreement caused consternation in parliament and government, and Evensen had difficulty getting it accepted by his own government
, where many held the opinion that he had exceeded his authority. The opposition parties criticized Evensen of using the term "Grey Zone," because it implied that Norway did not maintain its claim on rightful Norwegian territory in their opinon. In an interview with Danmarks Radio
in 1990, Treholt, who was then serving a 20-year sentence, admitted that he had acted as an informer for the Soviet negotiators. The arrest and conviction of Treholt in 1984-1985 had a devastating effect on Evensen, who withdrew completely from public life in Norway. In 1989, Evensen compared Treholt to Vidkun Quisling
.
, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Norwegian Prime Minister
Jens Stoltenberg
announced that the territorial dispute in the Barents Sea
was settled. The agreement is a compromise, which divides a disputed area of around 175000 km² (67,567.9 sq mi) into two approximately equally sized parts. The agreement was signed on 15 September 2010 in Murmansk
by President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev
and Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg
. President Medvedev highlighted the importance of the agreement, saying that:
On 8 February 2011, the Parliament of Norway unanimously approved the treaty. The debate lasted only an hour, and all representatives of Norwegian political parties praised the agreement. On 30 March, Russia's State Duma
also voted in support of ratification, despite strong opposition from communist
representatives. On 8 April 2011, President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law ratifying the treaty. The law was titled Federal Law On Ratification of the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Norway on Maritime Delimitation and Cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean. After ratification by both countries, there was defined to be a 30-day waiting period before it would come into force.
On 7 July 2011, the treaty entered force, ending the 44-year old border dispute. The treaty stipulates conditions for fishing cooperation, providing for the retention of the mechanism to jointly regulate fishing in the Barents Sea. The treaty also defines the principles of cooperation in hydrocarbons deposits exploration. A deposit which is crossed by the maritime border may only be exploited as a whole subject to a bilateral agreement.
The border treaty is economically significant, as it makes possible to conduct geological surveys and hydrocarbons drilling in the formerly disputed 175,000 km² area, which is estimated to contain up to 6.8 billion tons of oil and gas. The area is located west of Shtokman field
, one of the world's largest natural gas fields. According to Anatoly Zolutukhin, vice president of World Petroleum Council
, it is "a very prolific area — maybe even more prolific than Shtokman." Norwegian company Petroleum Geo-Services
has been contracted to begin surveying the Norwegian part of the area already this summer. Seismic acquisition in Norway's new maritime zone started on 8 July 2011, and is scheduled to be completed in summer 2012.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, formerly the border between the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and the NATO member state (from 1949) Norway, consists of a 196 kilometres (121.8 mi) long land borderline, from the Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
border to the coastline at Grense Jakobselv
Grense Jakobselv
Grense Jakobselv is a small settlement on the Barents Sea at the mouth of the Jakobselva river, in Finnmark, Norway. It lies 54 km by road east of Kirkenes....
in northernmost Norway and north-west Russia, and a maritime border which extends into the Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...
. The Norwegian side of the border is located entirely within the county of Finnmark
Finnmark
or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.The county was formerly known as Finmarkens...
.
While the border area was regarded as peripheral within both Norway and Russia in much of its history, it became of high military importance during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. During this period, it was Norway's best guarded border, and Norway maintained a large military presence on the border and in the county of Finnmark, which was considered to be a buffer zone
Buffer zone
A buffer zone is generally a zonal area that lies between two or more other areas , but depending on the type of buffer zone, the reason for it may be to segregate regions or to conjoin them....
against the Soviet Union by NATO. There were plans for evacuating the whole county using scorched earth
Scorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
tactics in the event of a Soviet invasion.
Geopolitical context
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
and the NATO enlargement in 2004, Norway was the only NATO country which shared a land border with Russia (during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
too shared a border with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
). Norway's special position, as both NATO member and neighbor of Russia, ensured that Russia–Norway border relations was a relevant matter for other NATO allies. After the end of the Cold War, writes a political scientist, a "decline in allied interest" took place, leaving "Norway somewhat alone in managing its relationship with Russia".
Land border
Novgorod Republic
The Novgorod Republic was a large medieval Russian state which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains between the 12th and 15th centuries, centred on the city of Novgorod...
. The agreement, a peace treaty, was concerning taxation in the border area.
The current border between Norway and Russia follows the old Soviet-Norwegian border. Starting from the Three-country border cairn
Treriksrøysa
Treriksrøysa . Norway has two three-country land borderpoints and also two cairns of a similar type. The western is on the meetingpoint of her borders to Finland and Sweden, and the eastern on the meetingpoint of her borders to Finland and Russia.-See also:* Treriksröset - An article about the...
, the border follows the river Pasvikelva until it deviates near Boris Gleb . The last part of the border follows the river Jakobselva
Jakobselva (Sør-Varanger)
The Jakobselva is a river on the border of Sør-Varanger municipality in Finnmark, Norway, and Murmansk Oblast in Russia.The river is also known as the Grense Jakobselv River...
until its outlet into the Varangerfjord
Varangerfjord
The Varangerfjord in the county of Finnmark, is the easternmost fjord in Norway. It is approximately long. In a strict sense, it is a false fjord, as it does not have the hallmarks of a fjord carved by glaciers....
at Grense Jakobselv
Grense Jakobselv
Grense Jakobselv is a small settlement on the Barents Sea at the mouth of the Jakobselva river, in Finnmark, Norway. It lies 54 km by road east of Kirkenes....
.
Treaty of Tartu (Russian–Finnish)
The Treaty of Tartu between Finland and Soviet Russia was signed on 14 October 1920 after negotiations that lasted for four months. The treaty confirmed the border between Finland and Soviet Russia after the Finnish civil war and Finnish volunteer expeditions in Russian East Karelia. Ratifications...
awarded Petsamo
Pechengsky District
Pechengsky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the five in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It is located to the northwest of the Kola Peninsula on the coast of the Barents Sea and borders with Finland in the south and southwest and with Norway in the west, northwest, and north...
to Finland as its land corridor to the Barents Sea
Barents Sea
The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...
. In the Moscow Truce 1944 Finland had to cede Petsamo to the Soviet Union.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
northern Norway served as as the staging area for the German attack on Murmansk
Operation Silver Fox
Operation Silver Fox was a joint German–Finnish military operation plan during World War II, though it was mainly operated and engaged by Germans. Its main goal was the capture of the key Soviet port at Murmansk through attacks from Finnish and Norwegian territory.The operation had to be three...
. The Soviet Union made an excursion over the border in 1944, specifically with the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive which aimed to extinguish the German military forces in the area
Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany started with the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, and ended on May 8, 1945, after the capitulation of German forces in Europe. Throughout this period, Norway was continuously occupied by the Wehrmacht...
. Soviet forces took the town of Kirkenes
Kirkenes
is a town in the municipality of Sør-Varanger in the county of Finnmark in the far northeast of Norway...
, which had been evacuated by the Germans who used scorched earth
Scorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
tactics, on 24 October 1944; Soviet troops continued west to Tana
Tana, Norway
Deatnu or Tana is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Tana Bru....
. The troops withdrew in September 1945.
Cold War
During the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, the Soviet Union was considered Norway's main enemy and Norway maintained a large military presence on the border. Norwegian government plans for the defense of Finnmark
Finnmark
or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.The county was formerly known as Finmarkens...
against the Soviet Union during the Cold War were based on using scorched earth tactics in the event of the Soviets crossing the border. The whole county of Finnmark was regarded by NATO as a buffer zone
Buffer zone
A buffer zone is generally a zonal area that lies between two or more other areas , but depending on the type of buffer zone, the reason for it may be to segregate regions or to conjoin them....
. Norwegian military leaders regarded the population in the county as potentially unreliable, and did not trust that they would be willing to defend their country against intruders, on account of the county's special ethnic and political composition (Sami people
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
and a higher number of communist sympathizers than elsewhere). A Soviet border provocation on 7 June 1968, which has been regarded as serious by historians, together with the invasion of Czechoslovakia
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
On the night of 20–21 August 1968, the Soviet Union and her main satellite states in the Warsaw Pact – Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic , Hungary and Poland – invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in order to halt Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring political liberalization...
that year and a general increase in Soviet military activity on the Norwegian border, contributed to a large increase in the funding for the Norwegian military presence on the Norwegian-Soviet border in Finnmark.
Nevertheless, in spite of the decades of cold war on the border, it has been said that the Russia–Norway border is the only one of Russia's borders where an open war between the two bordering countries has not taken place.
Border crossing
Storskog
Storskog is a place in Sør-Varanger municipality, Finnmark, Norway, where there is the only legal land border crossing from Norway to Russia. It lies on the E105 road, 16 km east of Kirkenes....
(Norway) and Boris Gleb (Russia), on the E105 road
European route E105
The E 105 is part of the International E-road network, which is a series of main roads in Europe.The E 105 starts from Hesseng, , Norway and runs along the Russian route M18, Russian route M10, Russian route M2 and Ukrainian route M18 to Yalta, Ukraine.Major towns and cities on the...
some 15 km east of Kirkenes.
Marine border
The border between Norway and the Soviet Union in the VarangerfjordVarangerfjord
The Varangerfjord in the county of Finnmark, is the easternmost fjord in Norway. It is approximately long. In a strict sense, it is a false fjord, as it does not have the hallmarks of a fjord carved by glaciers....
were agreed upon in a treaty from 1957.
Negotiations on the outside marine border were initiated in 1970. Norway claimed, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty, is the international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea , which took place from 1973 through 1982...
Article 15 and the Convention on the High Seas
Convention on the High Seas
The Convention on the High Seas is an international treaty created to codify the rules of international law relating to the high seas, otherwise known as international waters. The treaty was one of four agreed upon at the first United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea...
, that the border should follow the midline principle, the border being defined by midpoints between the nearest land area or islands, as is normal practice internationally. The Soviet Union claimed, based on a decision by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
from 1926, which was not recognized by any other country than the Soviet Union, that a "sector principle" should apply, such that the border should follow meridian line
Meridian (geography)
A meridian is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface from the North Pole to the South Pole that connects all locations along it with a given longitude. The position of a point along the meridian is given by its latitude. Each meridian is perpendicular to all circles of latitude...
s. Most of the disputed area was within what would normally be considered Norwegian according to the relevant international treaties. In 1975 the two countries agreed upon a moratorium
Moratorium (law)
A moratorium is a delay or suspension of an activity or a law. In a legal context, it may refer to the temporary suspension of a law to allow a legal challenge to be carried out....
prohibiting exploration for oil and gas in the disputed area.
In 1978 a temporary agreement regulating fishery
Fishery
Generally, a fishery is an entity engaged in raising or harvesting fish which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats,...
in a 60000 km² (23,166.1 sq mi) zone, named the in some documents from the same time, was signed, which has since been renewed annually. From the Norwegian side, the agreement was negotiated by Labour politician Jens Evensen
Jens Evensen
Jens Ingebret Evensen was a Norwegian lawyer, judge, politician , trade minister, international offshore rights expert, member of the International Law Commission and judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, member of The Swedish Order of the Polar Star and Commander Of The Royal...
and his protegé Arne Treholt
Arne Treholt
Arne Treholt is a former Norwegian Labour Party politician and diplomat convicted of high treason and espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union and Iraq during the Cold War. Treholt's espionage is generally seen as the most serious spy case in the modern history of Norway...
, who was later exposed as a Soviet spy and convicted of treason. The agreement was highly controversial in Norway. Many Norwegians believed that Evensen and Treholt gave too many concessions to the Soviet Union, and that they were motivated by Soviet sympathies. The agreement caused consternation in parliament and government, and Evensen had difficulty getting it accepted by his own government
Nordli's Cabinet
Nordli's Cabinet governed Norway between 15 January 1976 and 4 February 1981. The Labour Party cabinet was led by Odvar Nordli. It had the following composition:-Cabinet members:...
, where many held the opinion that he had exceeded his authority. The opposition parties criticized Evensen of using the term "Grey Zone," because it implied that Norway did not maintain its claim on rightful Norwegian territory in their opinon. In an interview with Danmarks Radio
Danmarks Radio
DR – officially rendered into English as the Danish Broadcasting Corporation – is Denmark's national broadcasting corporation. Founded in 1925 as a public-service organization, it is today Denmark's oldest and largest electronic media enterprise...
in 1990, Treholt, who was then serving a 20-year sentence, admitted that he had acted as an informer for the Soviet negotiators. The arrest and conviction of Treholt in 1984-1985 had a devastating effect on Evensen, who withdrew completely from public life in Norway. In 1989, Evensen compared Treholt to Vidkun Quisling
Vidkun Quisling
Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was a Norwegian politician. On 9 April 1940, with the German invasion of Norway in progress, he seized power in a Nazi-backed coup d'etat that garnered him international infamy. From 1942 to 1945 he served as Minister-President, working with the occupying...
.
Delimitation agreement
On 27 April 2010, during a meeting in OsloOslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Norwegian Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Norway
The Prime Minister of Norway is the political leader of Norway and the Head of His Majesty's Government. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Stortinget , to their political party, and ultimately the...
Jens Stoltenberg
Jens Stoltenberg
is a Norwegian politician, leader of the Norwegian Labour Party and the current Prime Minister of Norway. Having assumed office on 17 October 2005, Stoltenberg previously served as Prime Minister from 2000 to 2001....
announced that the territorial dispute in the Barents Sea
Barents Sea
The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...
was settled. The agreement is a compromise, which divides a disputed area of around 175000 km² (67,567.9 sq mi) into two approximately equally sized parts. The agreement was signed on 15 September 2010 in Murmansk
Murmansk
Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...
by President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is the third President of the Russian Federation.Born to a family of academics, Medvedev graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1987. He defended his dissertation in 1990 and worked as a docent at his alma mater, now renamed to Saint...
and Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg
Jens Stoltenberg
is a Norwegian politician, leader of the Norwegian Labour Party and the current Prime Minister of Norway. Having assumed office on 17 October 2005, Stoltenberg previously served as Prime Minister from 2000 to 2001....
. President Medvedev highlighted the importance of the agreement, saying that:
On 8 February 2011, the Parliament of Norway unanimously approved the treaty. The debate lasted only an hour, and all representatives of Norwegian political parties praised the agreement. On 30 March, Russia's State Duma
State Duma
The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...
also voted in support of ratification, despite strong opposition from communist
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a Russian political party. It is the second major political party in the Russian Federation.-History:...
representatives. On 8 April 2011, President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law ratifying the treaty. The law was titled Federal Law On Ratification of the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Norway on Maritime Delimitation and Cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean. After ratification by both countries, there was defined to be a 30-day waiting period before it would come into force.
On 7 July 2011, the treaty entered force, ending the 44-year old border dispute. The treaty stipulates conditions for fishing cooperation, providing for the retention of the mechanism to jointly regulate fishing in the Barents Sea. The treaty also defines the principles of cooperation in hydrocarbons deposits exploration. A deposit which is crossed by the maritime border may only be exploited as a whole subject to a bilateral agreement.
The border treaty is economically significant, as it makes possible to conduct geological surveys and hydrocarbons drilling in the formerly disputed 175,000 km² area, which is estimated to contain up to 6.8 billion tons of oil and gas. The area is located west of Shtokman field
Shtokman field
The Shtokman field , one of the world's largest natural gas fields, lies in the central part of Russian sector of the Barents Sea, north of Kola Peninsula. Its reserves are estimated at of natural gas and more than 37 million tons of gas condensate.-History:The Shtokman field was discovered...
, one of the world's largest natural gas fields. According to Anatoly Zolutukhin, vice president of World Petroleum Council
World Petroleum Council
The World Petroleum Council is an oil and gas industry forum and international organization representing the petroleum sector worldwide...
, it is "a very prolific area — maybe even more prolific than Shtokman." Norwegian company Petroleum Geo-Services
Petroleum Geo-Services
Petroleum Geo-Services ASA, an oilfield service company, provides geophysical services worldwide. The company provides various seismic and reservoir services, including acquisition, processing, interpretation, and field evaluation. The floating production unit was demerged in 2006 and listed as a...
has been contracted to begin surveying the Norwegian part of the area already this summer. Seismic acquisition in Norway's new maritime zone started on 8 July 2011, and is scheduled to be completed in summer 2012.