When Governor Marina Kovtun visited Oslo in November 2012, she was warmly greeted by then Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide. As reported by BarentsObserver, the Norwegian side was enthusiastic about the newly appointed governor, a local from Murmansk and one of very few female regional leaders in Russia.
This time, the atmosphere was another. When Deputy Governor Aleksey Tyukavin visited Oslo this week, he did not meet with any leading representative of government institutions. Judging from information from the sides, there were no official meetings at all with the Foreign Ministry.
Sensing the situation, Governor Kovtun had from before cancelled her long-planned participation in the visit.
Reportedly, the only Norwegian ministry representative, which met with the Russian delegation was Birgit Løyland from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. According to the Murmansk administration, Løyland participated in a business presentation of the region. Murmansk is for decades engaged in a close cooperation with neighboring Norway and Norwegian money accounts for a significant share of the region’s foreign investments.
Included in the Russian delegation were a number of business and trade representatives. Also Mayor of Pechenga, the Russian border municipality to Norway, took part in the visit, a press note from the Murmansk administration reads.
While government relations between Norway and Russia are being put on hold, cooperation continues on local and regional level. Mayor of Sør-Varanger, the Norwegian municipality bordering Russia, says that she will continue cross-border cooperation with Murmansk Oblast irrespectively of what they do in Oslo. “We are not going to stop doing cross-border cooperation, it is more important than ever”, Cecilie Hansen underlines to BarentsObserver.
In a speech to Parliament this week, Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende strongly condemned Russian conduct in Crimea, but at the same time stressed that regional cross-border relations in the North should continue. “Norway wants to continue the good contact which already exists between our peoples”, the minister said, adding that “this has resulted in more open borders and better mutual understanding, especially in the North”.
