News & Views on the Russian presence within the Arctic Circle
23 April 2010
Special Envoy of the Russian Foreign Ministry Anton Vasiliev made a good job of explaining Russia’s Arctic plans in the RIA Novocti interview with journalists from London, Moscow, Finland, France and also some experts and academics. The discussion was wide-ranging and based on Medvedev’s 2020 document. The discussion covered issues of climate change, transport and communications,... Read More...
30 March 2010
Many agencies have, of course, reported on the visit of Foreign Minister Lavrov to Canada. For the most part, there were few hints of any disagreement or any clue as to what might have been discussed behind closed doors. There was one issue, however, which did seem to emerge: what is the appropriate forum for discussing Arctic issues? риа-новости contextualised the issues... Read More...
26 March 2010
While TACC reports opinion from within the USA ’s intelligence community that the Arctic will not become another zone of conflict независимое has sought out opinions from Russian politicians about this very issue. Foreign Minister Lavrov, for example, states that attempts to whip up rumours of conflict are unnecessary and counter-productive. Chilingarov argues that... Read More...
24 March 2010
So goes the headline in голос россии referring to the establishment of the Borneo station and a three year expedition starting in June, involving the Academic Federov, the research ship, accompanied by an ice-breaker. Meanwhile in St. Petersburg plans for an airship expedition to the north pole during 2011 were also announced by Chilingarov at the State Institute for Arctic... Read More...
23 March 2010
From these reports we learn that the ship Akademic Federov is being ‘patched’ at a cost of 190 million roubles. Then from this report, from the official website of the United Russia party about the research station Borneo, which is very close to the North Pole, we learn that the research ship is actually being used to determine the boundaries of the Russian continental shelf... Read More...
18 March 2010
вести.ru were the first to broadcast, there is video, Medvedev’s remarks to the Security Council of the Russian Federation. There is a need to obtain the correct balance between the competitiveness of Russia’s economy and measures to combat environmental change, according to Medvedev. This is fair enough but Medvedev also commented on the, ‘ недопустимости... Read More...
15 March 2010
аргументы и факти reports that a French Naval Frigate will take part in exercises with the Northern fleet. Last week there were a number of reports on the visit of officials from Total to Murmansk in what is being called officially the year of France in Russia and the year of Russia in France. No-one can quite pin down why Russia is purchasing four French Mistral class... Read More...
12 March 2010
… according to a joke currently doing the rounds in the Russian military. This rather sceptical piece in flot2017 provides a snapshot of the various milestones in Arctic geopolitics over the past couple of years or so. The author suggests that, ‘Идею освоения Арктики в ХХІ веке российские политики и военные стратеги... Read More...
12 December 2009
Russian press agencies are reporting today articles that, in and of themselves cast, doubt on Russia’s strategic military capacity in the Arctic. голос-радио republish an article from The Times (UK) on-line that reports the explosion of a ballistic missile in the atmosphere over Norway, after a test-firing from a Russian submarine. ино-пресса report the... Read More...
1 December 2009
There has for some time been speculation on the Russian side (as noted here) that a sort of creeping militarization of the Arctic would occur. Yesterday, инфох.ru reported on the new Arctic road map prepared by the Pentagon for the USA’s Naval Forces (more details here). Most of the background details are familiar: melting ice, oil and gas reserves, control over shipping... Read More...
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