Yeah, the Russians are still mining coal in Svalbard, but I don’t think they produce more than what the power plant in Barentsburg needs plus maybe a few export shipments per year. When I was living in Longyearbyen, the Russian mine was closed several times by the Sysselmannen due to fatal accidents. As far as I know, they are also trying to develop Barentsburg more to the direction Longyearbyen has been going since the 1990s, i.e. create a diverse economic basis involving tourism and research. I don’t think the Norwegians can throw them out even if they stop mining coal because, as far as I know, Trust Arktikugol owns the land under Barentsburg.
As for the Norwegians and Store Norske, the situation looks pretty bad now. I hope they’ll manage to sort things out because I really loved living in Svalbard and the loss of mining industry would be a serious blow to the settlement despite UNIS and the big cruise ships bringing thousands of people to poke at things in the permafrost. Doing a PhD in Arctic Technology is still my strong B-plan if I ever get tired of working with the icebreakers…