The Arctic is Dark, Darker Than Ever (Commentary) Longyearbyen: Two news notifications flash on my cellphone as my flight from Tromsø lands in Longyearbyen on Svalbard. One of the notifications reads that the government is preparing a new Svalbard white paper. The other is a greeting from Dimitrij Medvedev, former Russian Prime Minister and President, and explains the need for a new white paper.