The number of young people and their share in the total Russian population has declined steadily in recent years.

The age group 15-29 made up 22 percent of the total population in 2012, with 31.6 million people. In 2011 this age group made up 23 percent of the population (32.4 million) and in 2009 – 24 percent (33.7 million), RIA Novosti reports citing the Federal State Statistics Service.

If this trend continues the number of young people in the age group 15-29 could go down to 25 million in only ten years time, says Sergey Belokonev of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs. “Given these circumstances, we must develop our country’s economy, and this, in turn, underlines the need for an active and energetic youth policy,” Belokonev added.

According to an official estimate for 1 April 2013, the population of Russia is 143,4 million  The population hit a historic peak at almost 148,7 million in 1991, just before the breakup of the Soviet Union, but then began a decade-long decline, falling at a rate of about 0.5% per year due to declining birth rates, rising death rates and emigration.

Also the northern regions of Russia are experiencing a decline of the population. The population in the Murmansk region has dropped from 1.2 million in the Soviet period to 795 000 in March 2012. 243 000 of these are senior citizens. 

Norwegian researcher Salve Dahle fears Russia’s new law requiring NGOs to register as foreign agents could have a chilling effect on research cooperation in the Barents Region.

Can Russian researchers continue to work on joint projects with Norwegian colleagues if the funding comes from Norway? The question is introduced after Russia in March implemented a law requiring nonprofit organizations to register as foreign agents if they receive money from foreign sources and are found to be engaging in political activities. 

What are political activities, asks Salve Dahle, Senior Researcher with Akva-plan niva in Tromsø. Over the last decades, Salve Dahle has sailed the seas and traveled across the Barents Region together with Russian researchers. The list of publications is like a catalog. 

Last week, the 20 years anniversary for Norwegian, Russian cooperation on research and higher education in the north was marked with a conference at the Svanhovd Environmental Centre in Finnmark. The anniversary conference was hosted by Akvaplan-niva, the University of Tromsø and Murmansk Marine Biological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science. All have been key-players in the cross-border research cooperation for the last two decades. 

With the new NGO-law, a nationwide fear has spread throughout Russia regarding any kind of foreign funding, including joint research projects. Recently, the Levada Analytical Center in Moscow that conducts sociological research, has been threatened by Russian prosecutors to close down under the new NGO-law. 

Salve Dahle has so far not seen any direct threats to nature- and environmental research across the borders in the Barents Region, but fears for the future.

“Our collaboration with Murmansk Marine Biological Institute involves funding of Russian researchers traveling to Tromsø and Norway,” says Salve Dahle. He also points to the successful annual international conference Arctic Frontiers taking place in Tromsø. 

“The Norwegian Barents Secretariat contributes with funding so that young scientists can participate at Arctic Frontiers. They are in main working on natural science, oceanology, environmental science etc, but what if they are present at a meeting where suddenly some kind of political question appears,” asks Salve Dahle. 

Rune Rafaelsen, head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, says contacts and cooperation between young researchers across the borders in the Barents Region are of key importance. “Especially young researchers, those who are building the future for the region, should have the financial instruments to meet even more frequently,” says Rune Rafaelsen.

The Research Council of Norway has a long history of financing bilateral research cooperation with Russia. Grants are given to a broad field of areas; marine research, environmental research, polar research and energy research are priorities. A call for proposal online right now includes a 3 years project on social science research aimed to “produce knowledge on how political, economic and social factors affect Russian policy and decision-making, and should encompass issues of relevance to the whole of Russia, beyond merely the High North.”

President Vladimir Putin has by several occasions over the last year said all sorts of foreign influence on Russian domestic politics must be weeded out.

Three cadets from the Norwegian Police University College claim they were assaulted and robbed on their way out after a late evening at the striptease bar XXXX in Murmansk. Local law enforcement sources tells another story.

A group of 16 Norwegian cadets that currently have practice deployment at different police stations in Finnmark arrived in Murmansk Tuesday on the academy’s annual study tour, according to a press-release sent to BarentsObserver.

Most of the cadets went the same evening to what the Police University College names “a nightspot” without giving further details. According to the Murmansk version of Komsomolskaya Pravda, the nightspot in question is the bar XXXX on Kolski Prospekt.

Bar XXXX is a newly opened nightclub that markets itself as a “hot bar” with striptease, pole-dance, different erotic shows, and has a homepage with loads of smiling half-naked men and women, mostly the last.

The rules of the bar encourages guest to show their sexy underwear and girls to “change their bra for a bottle of champagne in a dance on the bar after midnight!”

According to a law enforcement source in Murmansk speaking to Komsomolskaya Pravda, the majority of the police cadets went home from the nightclub, but three of them continued to stay.

Thereafter, two different stories are told. The Norwegian press-release reads that the three students claim “a gang of criminals” attacked them when they were “on their way out from the nightspot” while the law enforcement source in Murmansk says “misunderstandings inside the bar lead to a fight” that quickly ended and the two groups became friends again, whereafter the Russians assisted the Norwegians back to their hotel.

The Norwegian press-release reads that after being attacked on their way out from the nightspot, the three police students were “taken away and threatened to give away their money.”

The Murmansk-branch of Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs confirms the fight at the bar. “The persons involved were examined by doctors, but none was injured,” reads a press-release issued on the case. The incident is now under investigation by local police.

Another of the Norwegian police cadets, according to the press-release, ended the evening in the arrest. On his way back to the hotel from the same nightspot, the cadet was arrested accused of vandalism. He was later released and according to Komsomolskaya Pravda taken care of by the Norwegian Consulate General in Murmansk.

The Consulate General says to BarentsObserver that all questions in this case should be addressed to the Police University College. The press-service at the University College has not replied to BarentsObserver’s question whether it is normal that police cadets on study tours visit stip-bars.

The press-release says the program for the study tour was to visit the Police Academy in Murmansk and the Norwegian Consulate General. All students will be back in Norway by Thursday. The visit to Murmansk is partly financed by the Police University College and partly by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat.

Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg today laid down wreaths at the memorial to the Red Army soldier in Kirkenes.

After finishing the Barents Summit and bilateral talks the prime ministers of the neighboring countries visited Russemonumentet (the Russian Monument) – a memorial erected in honor of the Red Army which liberated Kirkenes in the autumn of 1944, after four years of Nazi-German occupation.

Prime Minister Medvedev laid down a large wreath with a bow saying “From the Russian Government” to the monument before being followed by Prime Minister Stoltenberg back to the cortege and continuing to the Storskog border station. Soldiers from the Garrison in Sør-Varanger were honor guards during the ceremony.

The monument of a Red Army soldier was installed in 1952 as a tribute to the Red Army’s sacrifice during the Petsamo-Kirkenes offensive between 15 and 25 October 1944, when parts of the Finnmark County in north-eastern Norway were liberated from Nazi occupation.

Both Russians and Norwegians in Kirkenes celebrate the Norwegian Liberation Day on May 8, the Russian Victory Day on May 9 and the liberation of Kirkenes on October 25 by this monument. The memorial text on the monument says “In memory of the brave Soviet soldiers that liberated Kirkenes in 1944”.