News & Views on the Russian presence within the Arctic Circle
8 February 2010
Recent days have seen a number of contradictory arguments about what might happen to Russia under conditions of global warming. rbc.ru reports on an American study by the Pew Group which claims that melting Arctic ice will damage permafrost and create further unspecified problems, followed by a number of rather bland comments from one Alexander Bedritsky, Russian President of the WMO... Read More...
8 February 2010
rusnord continues the reporting of the recent conversations between the Norwegian and Russian foreign ministers. This is the most significant part – ‘ По мнению экспертов, соответствующее соглашение нужно Норвегии намного больше, чем России, что позволит Кремлю получить от... Read More...
5 February 2010
Meanwhile, the debate about the Canadian’s motives for not inviting Russia to the G7 meeting in Canada continues. Прайм-тасс repeats the Canadian position that this was about allowing the G7 to appreciate the beauty of the Arctic - while they discussed how to save the world’s economy they could presumably gaze out of the window. It also, in another article,... Read More...
5 February 2010
Many agencies are reporting and commentating on the visit of the Norwegian Foreign Minister to Moscow. Although the talks were wide ranging, they seemed to be focussed on the tricky issue of the delineation of the maritime boundary in the Barents Sea. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov answered questions about the Shtokman project and maintained that these issues were purely commerical. ... Read More...
3 February 2010
Despite the recent doubts as to the economic prospects for the Shtokman project, which this blog will follow as best as it can, техноПрогресс has reported that 1.3 billions roubles has been allocated for hydrographic and geophysical studies into what it calls, ‘обоснования внешней границы континентального шельфа РФ в Северном... Read More...
3 February 2010
A number of agencies today reported the meeting of G7 finance ministers which is to take place in the tiny town of Iqaluit, capital of the Canadian province of Nunavut. Интерфакс, however, points out in its headline that the meeting is to take place in the Arctic ‘without Russia.’ As they put it, ‘Россию же в этот арктический рай пока... Read More...
1 February 2010
In developing plans for pipelines and oil and gas terminals it appears as though Gazprom is pressing ahead with the development of the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea despite some ‘foreign’ doubts about its profitability in the short-to-mid-term gas market. According to this report the head of Gazprom states that the ’проект будет обязательно... Read More...
29 January 2010
The new law currently before the Russian Duma on the Management of Radioactive Waste does not offer sufficient safeguards for the health of human populations according to critics as reported in b-port.com, the regional news-agency from Murmansk. Apparently the law will even allow the importation of nuclear waste into Russia from abroad, which will scarcely assist Russia’s own massive... Read More...
28 January 2010
The boat that I described yesterday as playing a role in the rescue of the Ivan Makarin is back in Vladivostok, so reports vecti.ru. Now this is only indirectly related to the issue of ArcticRussia but the ship was stuck in the ice in back in November while working for the BBC in Antarctica. The interesting fact here is that the ice breaker was stuck for about a week. вести.ru are... Read More...
28 January 2010
In what could only really be described as an amazing bit of news хибины.ru is reporting that Gazprom could be forced to abandon its ambitious plans for the development of the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea. There have been indications before that confidence in the project was shaky and, if these predictions are true, then this would be a massive blow to Russia’s Arctic... Read More...
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