News & Views on the Russian presence within the Arctic Circle
8 May 2010
Coming after the agreement over the Barents Sea and this week’s announcment of naval joint-exercises between Russia and Norway, which will test inter-operability in various scenarios such as emergency and rescue, armed attack on instillations, Norway is now focussing its Arctic diplomacy on the Arctic Council. The report in иносми is actually a translation of a Canadian article... Read More...
30 April 2010
According to this report the govenor of the Murmansk region believes that Russia did not make any concessions, though he is contradicted by a former economist and engineer Nikolai Bogdanov who estimates that Russia has had to cede around 9 billion tonnes of oil and who laments the lack of a proper exploration policy and reliance on foreign firms. The Financial Times in the UK uses the metaphor... Read More...
28 April 2010
This report in прийм-тасс emphasizes that historic handshakes (vecti has videofootage of the press conference) are not quite the same thing as detailed agreement. The report states that, ‘Москва рассчитывает на диалог по этому вопросу’, which roughly means that Moscow is considering the dialogue on this issue, which is the precise... Read More...
27 April 2010
The importance of this doesn’t need to be emphasized but utro.ru have reported that Norway and Russia have concluded an agreement about the delineation of maritime boundaries in the Barents Sea which will be called, ‘Agreement on maritime delimitation and cooperation in the Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean.” The report stresses that the precise legal details still need... Read More...
26 April 2010
In the light of concerns about the relative (declining?) position of the west in the world, such as these expressed in this book by an HSBC economist, I often wonder whether it would be better if western countries couldn’t fix on a more coordinated approach to issues such as Russia’s development of the Arctic region. Medvedev’s visit to Norway to discuss such... Read More...
24 April 2010
infox.ru reports on Norway’s negotiations with Russia concerning the Barents Sea ahead of the visit next week of President Medvedev to Oslo. The headline emphasizes that Norway is in no hurry to conclude an agreement, which contradicts some opinion expressed before when the Norwegians went to Moscow. The tangle of issues includes Spitzbergen and even the Shtokman project. The... Read More...
19 March 2010
Medvedev’s comments that Russia is being prevented from exercising its legitimate rights in the Arctic have been rejected and criticized by Canada and Norway. Norway argues that Medvedev was using rhetorical strategies, while Canada, according to иифох, has stated that Russia is ‘playing games’. There is to be a meeting of the five Arctic states – Norway,... Read More...
11 March 2010
From local sources in Murmansk it is always possible to discern larger scale developments between nations and companies. Thus a delegation from France’s total have been meeting with the Mayor of Murmansk to discuss the implementation of the Shtokman project – Total has a 25% stake in the development company. Meanwhile the Norwegians – with their 24% stake - have... 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
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...
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