Russia

Russia enters the novel chiefly as a destination for a failed commercial venture, not as a setting visited by the characters. Four mobile freezing plants sent to Murmansk and Kamchatka disappear from the account of a deal that brings Runólfur Zóphaníasson into conflict with Kristín and the Icelandic officials who had helped him make business contacts. The episode makes Russia a source of both financial loss and political accusation, while exposing the limits of what official assistance can promise.

A market reached through intermediaries

Runólfur had received help from the ministry and the Iceland Trade Council in establishing contacts for his business in Russia. He later claimed that a ministry lawyer had advised him to send the equipment first and seek payment afterward, as a way to facilitate further contracts. The lawyer, who no longer worked for the ministry, could not remember giving that advice and warned Kristín that Runólfur had once threatened him. The account therefore leaves the alleged guidance disputed rather than establishing that the ministry instructed Runólfur to take the risk.

The commercial loss was substantial: Runólfur said that goods worth more than thirty million krónur had vanished in Russia and that attempts to trace them had failed. He had received no payment for the four units dispatched to Murmansk and Kamchatka. The named destinations give the dispute a concrete geography, but the narrative offers no account of the equipment’s eventual whereabouts or of any recovery.

The limits of official help

Kristín explains that doing business with Russia is risky and that, although the ministry tries to help Icelandic companies establish deals, the risk remains with the companies themselves. The ministry regrets Runólfur’s loss and offers to help him contact Russian buyers through the embassy in Moscow; it cannot guarantee payment or compensate him if those efforts fail. She repeats this position across three meetings, while Runólfur continues to demand support and compensation. The contrast is between assistance with access and responsibility for the transaction: the officials can open a channel, but cannot make the commercial risk disappear.

Runólfur responds by accusing the ministry of sending people into business with the Russian mafia and alleging that officials take bribes. These are his accusations, not confirmed facts about Russia or the ministry. His repeated claims turn the failed deal into a personal confrontation with Kristín, whom he treats with contempt and threatens with further action. His anger also reaches the chairman of the Iceland Trade Council: after a late-night call in which he threatened physical violence over the advice he said he had received about Russia, the chairman and a foreign minister’s aide come to Kristín’s office and tell her the police have been notified. Runólfur has named her specifically.

Russia’s place in the plot

The Russian business dispute establishes the circumstances that bring Runólfur into Kristín’s working life before the larger crisis overtakes her. His financial grievance gives him a reason to direct his anger at ministry staff, but it does not substantiate his claims of a conspiracy or of criminal collusion. Russia functions instead as the distant location behind an unresolved transaction: the goods are beyond the officials’ reach, and the promised help can go no further than renewed contact with buyers.

That distance also shapes the novel’s presentation of institutional responsibility. The Icelandic authorities have helped connect a company to a foreign market, yet Kristín draws a firm boundary between facilitating business and bearing its losses. Russia is thus associated with both the possibility of international trade and the uncertainty that follows when payment, goods, and accountability cannot be secured.