“If this route is closed, families would be torn apart”
How a small Russian bus in the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes has become the last hope for people from all over Europe.
Straight from a work shift
At a Kirkenes bus stop, I see a woman with a couple of colourful bags. Her name is Natalya. She tells me that once a month she travels on a bus from her hometown Murmansk in the Russian Arctic to the Norwegian town of Kirkenes to work at the local company Barel AS.
How important is this for you that you can take a bus to Russia?
“Very! Otherwise, I will immediately become unemployed. This bus is the only one.”
Natalya has been travelling between Murmansk and Kirkenes for a year.
“We are Team Barel - our 64 employees continuously deliver the best electronics in the world to customers all over the world,” Barel’s website says. The Norwegian enterprise used to have production in Murmansk for 20 years, but in March 2023 the Russia branch was shut down. The reason - sanctions imposed on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. As a result, Barel announced that out of 35 employees in Murmansk, 20 will continue working in Kirkenes, NRK reported earlier.
Natalya’s concern about becoming unemployed has some grounding - without the bus, which is called “Borodin” after the owner’s name, there is hardly any other cheaper and faster way to travel between Europe and Russia.
In October 2023 Norway banned the entry of Russian vehicles with less than 10 seats.
“Norway stands together with allies and like-minded countries in response to the brutal war of aggression that Russia is waging against Ukraine.”, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry explained in support of its decision.
In May 2024 Norway closed the entire border for Russian tourists, which stopped the popular shopping tours to Norway. For this high north region, this is now an unprecedented situation that has thrown all cross-border cooperation efforts from both sides over the last decades back to that of the era of Cold War hostility.
But visiting relatives and business trips are still allowed.
“If this route (Borodin bus) is closed, this would be a disastrous human rights violation. Families will be torn apart”,
another woman at the bus stop, who also introduced herself as Natalya, tells me. She is traveling from the southern Norwegian city of Drammen to Murmansk for her mother’s 85th birthday. Now a Norwegian citizen, she has been living in Norway since 2006.
Natalya from Drammen was worried about whether she would make it back via the Norwegian checkpoint, Storskog, again as the situation nowadays is unpredictable.
But you have a Norwegian passport, I tell her, so you will be allowed to enter Norway anyway…
“No idea, no idea what will happen”, she replies while putting her bags into the back of the minivan.
“Do you have Russian citizenship as well?” I ask.
“Yes, of course, I do not betray my motherland”, she answers adding that Norway and Russia are “two inseparable motherlands” for her.
Everyone I spoke to at the Borodin bus stop that week seemed to be worried that even this last route would be closed one day. People seemed scared, though while the majority wanted to discuss their concerns, they did so anonymously or without mentioning their full names. Nobody, except for the driver, allowed their photos to be taken for this article. But they wanted to talk because they were worried.
From Paris with love
Kirkenes is now an important travel hub not only for those traveling from different Norwegian cities but for those from many other capitals of Europe.
“I flew from Paris yesterday evening and I’m now here the next day to take the bus”, another Russian pensioner tells me. She said she now regularly travels from Russia via Kirkenes to the French capital to visit her daughter:
“This bus is important for me because all other borders [with Russia] are closed. Traveling via Turkey is too complicated for me.”
The problem she highlights is that there are now no direct flights from Russian cities to Europe. In retaliation to EU sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia closed its airspace to most European and North American airlines.
Turkish Airlines via Istanbul is one of the few routes available for those visiting Russia. But the cost of a round trip is estimated at around €3,000.
“This is unaffordable for us pensioners”, a woman at the bus stop told me.
The Borodin bus drive lasts around 3.5 hours in one direction and costs just €50.
Another Russian pensioner at the Borodin bus stop tells me that she is traveling from Stockholm - her life has been between Murmansk and the Swedish capital for 20 years. She tells me that after the war in Ukraine began, she once tried to go to Russia via an Estonian checkpoint in Narva. This journey she found unbearable:
“In Estonia, the bus stops right at the border, so I had to cross the border to Russia on my feet. I walked about 1 km with my bag to the Russian border town of Ivangorod. It was hot, large queues at the checkpoint. I broke a wheel on my bag on the way”.
Security threat
Finland’s decision to close its border with Russia in December 2023, when Finnish authorities accused Russia of orchestrating the flow of third-country asylum seekers across the border as a means of hybrid influence, prompted many European residents with relatives in Russia to travel via Kirkenes as well.
Those at the bus stop I spoke to, who used to travel via Finland before, expressed concern Norway might follow Finland’s example as well.
When I highlighted that one of the security concerns from the side of the European countries is a fear of Russian espionage, all 4 women exclaimed:
“Oh my god!” (“Oh gospody!”)
“Espionage from people like us?!” - one of them continued - “We are grandmas (babushkas)! What are you talking about?! I don’t believe we are a security risk.”
“Why is this a security issue?” - Natalya, the Norwegian citizen from Drammen asks me, - “The fact that ordinary people keep traveling home? That the relatives visit each other? There is no danger”.
Emotions on the rise
The longer I spoke to the passengers, the more emotional their words became. On the front seat of the bus sat another Natalya, who has been living and working in Tromsø since 2008, has a Norwegian passport too, and regularly travels to her relatives in Murmansk.
“It’s hard for me to imagine how we would travel if this bus route was closed. That would be a violation of the freedom of movement. It would be a discrimination on the basis of nationality. Why can’t Russians travel to their home? We have the right to choose where to live. We have good work and life conditions, families, and a circle of friends here in Norway. How would it be possible for us to uproot and move to Russia?”.
After I mentioned to Natalya from Tromsø that the restrictive measures on travel appeared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she replied:
“Russia did not invade Ukraine. Russia was protecting its citizens, it stopped the discrimination and supported the Russian-speaking people”, she said, repeating almost word-for-word claims made by Russian state TV. - “Russia has finally stood up to protect Russian-speaking citizens, who asked for help,” she continued.
Natalya from Tromsø was interrupted by another Natalya from Murmansk, who had finished her shift in Barel AS:
“If Russia hadn’t entered the territory of Ukraine to protect its citizens, Ukraine would have entered our territory”, - she said, repeating words also regularly broadcast by Russian propaganda channels. Meanwhile, the bus driver Yuri and other passengers reminded me that it was soon time for the bus to begin its way to Murmansk.
“We are protecting our people, - Natalya from Barel AS continues and I see tears start appearing in her eyes. - “Our Russian soldiers treat prisoners well. But how are our captives being treated? They are being humiliated. Kursk was invaded and ordinary people were being killed. They kill children. This is terrorism. Why is no one talking about it?”.
As she finished, the clock struck 14:00. Right on schedule, the driver Yuri started the engine and closed the bus door, setting off towards Murmansk in order to be back here for the next day.
