Russian authorities have warned of a “worrying” buildup of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) personnel in the Arctic. Moscow’s ambassador to Norway, Nikolay Korchunov, has said that NATO is attempting to hinder Russia’s freedom of navigation in the region.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that NATO’s consistently expanding Arctic footprint is destabilizing the region and geopolitical landscape, and it poses a direct threat to national security.

In an interview with Izvestia on Monday, Korchunov claimed that Norway wants to squeeze Moscow out of the Spitsbergen archipelago, where Russia has no intention of scaling back its operations. Russia is the only country besides Norway to have carried out economic activity on the archipelago for decades.

NATO is mulling a partial or full naval blockade of Russia, Korchunov claimed, as the military bloc has boosted its footprint in the Baltic and Arctic regions and stepped up patrols under the pretext of protecting the areas from an alleged Russian threat.

A Norwegian territory, Spitsbergen, has a Russian presence in the form of the Arktikugol mining company and the mining community of Barentsburg. Russia enjoys an equal right to engage in commercial activities on the archipelago alongside 13 other nations in accordance with the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, which also made the territory a demilitarized free-trade zone while recognizing Norway’s sovereignty over it. –RT

Korchunov also said that Norway is intentionally hindering Arktikugol operations and curbing movement and economic activity in parts of the archipelago. It is also creating a NATO-driven military buildup marked by more frequent visits from Norwegian aircraft and warships. He warned that bloc members “possess significant naval capabilities” and had shown a readiness to use them to curb freedom of navigation in breach of international law, accoridng to a report by RT.

This development comes as Denmark has bolstered its military presence in and around Greenland since the start of the year. Copenhagen has been deploying additional ships, aircraft, and personnel as Arctic security tensions mount followed threats made by United States President Donald Trump to seize the autonomous Danish territory.

Danish Prime Minister Says Trump Is “Very Serious” About Acquiring Greenland