These plates were introduced in the early 1990s in the layout of the pre-1993 Russian plates and still use this design. Before that, Russian vehicles had no plates.
According to the Spitsbergen Treaty of 1920, the Svalbard archipelago is Norwegian territory, but citizens and companies from all signatory states have free access to it. Two major mining settlements were established by the Soviet Union: Barentsburg and Pyramiden. In the Norwegian settlements, the biggest of which is Longyearbyen, tax free yellow on black Norwegian plates with regional code ZN are used.