ST. PETERSBURG, June 23. /TASS/. Russia's state-run Arktikugol Trust Company, mining coal on the Spitsbergen Archipelago, shipped 100,000 tons of coal. In 2022, due to the sanctions and limited coal supplies to the EU, Russia did not ship a single ton, the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic's head of the Department for Development of the Russian Arctic Zone and Infrastructure Projects, Maxim Dankin, said

"This year, by the way, we have shipped from there about 100,000 tons of coal," he said. "While it was zero last year - after the sanctions, practically any activities were banned for us - this year, we have found options, and began to sell coal."

Russia plans to build up its presence on Spitsbergen in the coming years. The country has a plan to 2030, he added. Under this plan, Russia would be cutting gradually coal production on the archipelago, focusing on other directions - tourism and scientific research in the ecologically vulnerable region.

"The project to develop tourism - we are relying on it, and now we are working to have a chartered flight there. We want to establish an international scientific center, to attract friendly countries to the Spitsbergen Archipelago," he continued. "We have been working on a concept, which we will present next month to Yury Trutnev, the Russian Federation's Deputy Prime Minister."

In 2022, Arktikugol's Director General Ildar Neverov told TASS that due to the cut coal supplies to the EU the company planned to export the fuel to other countries - Turkey, Morocco, and Egypt. Sales to regular customers, the EU countries, had been stopped due to the sanctions, and the company planned to restructure the sales by early 2023.

In early April, 2022, the EU adopted the fifth package of sanctions against Russia, which, in particular, provided for restrictions on individuals and financial institutions, as well as imposed an embargo on coal imports from the Russian Federation and supplies of high-tech goods. For example, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country used a four-month transition period to phase out coal imports from the Russian Federation. The UK's Department for International Trade announced a ban on coal import from Russia from August 10.