Show Spitzbergen Coal ft Mined By Russians The coldest crossroads of the cold war are Norway's jagged Spitsbergen n islands where polar bears nose inquisitively into the only mining settlements operated by Soviet Russia on the free side of the Iron Curtain Svalbard land uland of the cold coast coast is is the ancient Norse name for this Arctic archipelago which became part of the Kingdom of oft t Norway a quarter of a century t ago Once an international no nomans noman's 11 1 mans man's land Svalbard has recently become a strategic question mark mrk tf r It straddles potential polar air routes between Europe and North L America But under a 1920 treaty i the islands cannot be fortified and signing nations United States ll t r Great Britain and its Dominions France Italy Japan the Netherlands Netherlands Netherlands Nether Nether- lands Denmark Sweden and Russia are guaranteed continued access to any economic interests they might hold there Today both Norway and Russia mine Spitsbergen coal Norway is isa isa isa a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Russia is not Svalbard's status is somewhere somewhere somewhere some some- where between |