Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.08.2015, Blaðsíða 8

List of licenced Tour
Operators and Travel
Agencies on:
visiticeland.com
Licensing and
registration of travel-
related services
The Icelandic Tourist Board issues licences to tour operators and travel agents,
as well as issuing registration to booking services and information centres.
Tour operators and travel agents are required to use a special logo approved
by the Icelandic Tourist Board on all their advertisements and on their Internet
website.
Booking services and information centres are entitled to use a Tourist
Board logo on all their material. The logos below are recognised by the
Icelandic Tourist Board.
OPEN 7-21
BREAKFAST,
LUNCH & DINNER
In March of last year,
Iceland joined in inter-
nationally coordinated
trade sanctions against
Russia. The principal
advocates were the United States and
members of the European Union, but
many nations are partaking, includ-
ing Japan, Australia and Montenegro.
These sanctions were put in place fol-
lowing Russia's military intervention in
Ukraine. Russia retaliated by imposing
trade sanctions of their own, but are
only now getting to Iceland.
What's taken them so long?
The Russian government has been busy
with a severe financial crisis, caused by
the sanctions and low prices for its oil
and gas exports. Worrying about people
buying fish from Iceland was the least of
their concerns. But, one day in late July,
the Russian government noticed an
unticked entry on its to-do list, and an-
nounced they would look into sanctions
against a number of countries, includ-
ing Albania, Iceland, Montenegro and
Liechtenstein.
That's highly suspicious, as I'm
pretty sure there's no such place
as Liechtenstein.
Even though they should have seen it
coming, Icelandic authorities were sur-
prised when the Russian Prime Min-
ister announced the sanctions. Some
members of Parliament in both ruling
parties started agitating for Iceland to
end its trade sanctions. In the end the
government announced that they were
unanimous in their support for continu-
ing sanctions. It took three weeks from
the first news reports out of Russia un-
til the ruling political parties made that
announcement. In the meantime, lots of
politicians and businesspeople said lots
of stupid things.
How is that different from any
other three-week period in
Iceland?
The responses came in two types. The
first was the Cheese Hater's Explana-
tion of Bad Events. It is a three-step pro-
cess:
1) A bad thing happens.
2) I hate cheese.
3) Therefore, cheese is to blame for
whatever bad thing happened.
Some people's cheese was NATO, even
though NATO had little to do with it.
Turkey did not join in the sanctions, and
many countries outside NATO did. Oth-
ers blamed the EU, which at least has
something to do with it, but Iceland was
not coerced into imposing sanctions on
Russia.
No one blamed cheese, right?
Because what kind of monster
hates cheese?
The other response was cynical coward-
ice. Leading the charge away from the
field of battle was Independence Party
MP Ásmundur Friðriksson. The day
after Russia said they were looking into
imposing sanctions on Icelandic prod-
ucts, he started advocating for Iceland
to stop supporting sanctions on Russia.
Other politicians made similar state-
ments. Following closely behind was
Fisheries Iceland (SFS), the trade asso-
ciation of Icelandic fisheries. The chair-
man published an opinion piece, argu-
ing that trade sanctions had no effect
and that Russians and Icelanders were
old friends that should not let a global
squabble spoil the relationship.
Good to see businesspeople
speaking for calm, peace and... oh,
they risked losing money, didn't
they?
From 2009 to 2013, the export of Ice-
landic fish to Russia more than tripled,
from 26 thousand tonnes to 90 thousand
tonnes. Last year, Icelandic fisheries
sold over 140 million Euros worth of fish
to Russia. A large amount of money in
a society of three hundred and twenty
thousand people. The fisheries’ owners
are incredibly wealthy on an Icelandic
scale and have used that money to get
influence in politics and purchase media
companies to propagandise for them.
That's less depressing if you
picture them as haddock with top
hats and monocles.
The ultimate example of that is Mor-
gunblaðið. After it was taken over by
the fisheries, Davíð Oddsson, former
right-wing Prime Minister, was made
editor-in-chief. His signature foreign
policy while in office was supporting the
US invasion of Iraq, so at least support-
ing Russian military actions in Ukraine
would be consistent. He did not go so
far, however, although he heavily criti-
cized current Foreign Minister Gunnar
Bragi Sveinsson for advocating for the
trade sanctions. Gunnar Bragi Sveins-
son's signature foreign policy is support
for Ukraine against Russia, even visiting
Kiev shortly after announcing Iceland
would join in the trade sanctions.
Don't tell me he also spoke against
the sanctions.
The Foreign Minister did, in fact, say
that it was unlikely that Iceland would
stop supporting sanctions. However, he
made the caveat that it might need to be
discussed if the EU did not lower tolls on
Icelandic mackerel. He had also talked
about the possibility that the govern-
ment would assist fishing companies
financially.
I'm glad someone's looking out for
the interests of wealthy people.
Traditionally in Iceland, August is the
month for taking it easy, vacationing
abroad or travelling around the coun-
try. Usually there needs to be a volcanic
eruption or a polar bear drifting ashore
to get anyone very excited. However,
the enormous influence of fishing com-
panies now means that their search for
new buyers for their mackerel has the
same news value as a volcano spewing
polar bears.
8 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 13 — 2015
So What're These Russian Trade Sanctions
I Keep Hearing About?
Words by Kári Tulinius @Kattullus
Illustration by Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir
I C E L A N D 4 D U M M I E S
Iceland | Opportunism