Russians in the Western Arctic

A Russian oligarch is stranded in North Greenland because of lack of permissions

A Russian expedition party was intercepted by the Danish military dog sledge patrol (sic!) Sirius, Greenland police announced on Friday 10th 2024. The background for this event is actually a planned expedition that started in New York back in January this year. The team travels in special-purpose amphibious vehicles and traversed North America up to the Nunavut indigenous territory in the North of Canada. From there, they set out for the North Pole in a quest similar to the famous run of the Top Gear team a few years back. But Top Gear travelled to the magnetic North Pole. This team wanted to go to the geographical North Pole and then alle the way to the other end of the Globe, to the South Pole. All by ‘car’ which actually means special-purpose vehicles with ballon tyres and special equipment.

Currently, the team is under some kind of arrest at Station Nord, a military base and airport, home of the Sirius Patrol. This was first reported by Sermitsiaq, the main newspaper in Greenland. The police is present at the station and will not allow the expedition to proceed as planned, traversing the Greenland Ice Sheet from North to South. First, they need to pass entry formalities, because members of the expedition are not all from a Schengen member country (a free-movement agreement of EU). It is not clear if they have appropriate visas in place. Just as bad, they seem also to have missed the requirement to obtain Greenland government permission to roam the enormous territory, including the Ice Cap. That is a strict requirement before entry. Further, it is required to deposit a sufficient sum to cover potential search and rescue (SAR) operations, which are extremely expensive under Greenland conditions. It is not yet known if the team fullfills these requirements or any of them.

This story is updated

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