News & Views on the Russian presence within the Arctic Circle
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...
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...
23 March 2010
правда севера reports on a meeting of the United Russia party held in St. Petersburg where presentations were given on the northern sea route which specified that the route is uneconomic when compared with the Suez route in winter but that it is more economical than Suez in the summer. References were also made to Chilingarov’s new legal framework for the NSR entitled,«Северный... 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...
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...
27 February 2010
According to portnews the Arctic Council will institute a common framework for search and rescue operations, so claims State Secretary, Deputy Transport Minister Sergei Aristov in the opening speech of the first meeting of the Task Force of the Arctic Council. According to the report, it is the view of the Minister that ’ the creation of a unified regional Arctic search and... Read More...
7 November 2009
This article in новости.mail.ru is a good example of how the Russian leadership sees an emerging new energy order rather than a new cold war. The article begins with an account of how Danish-Russian relations have not been good lately, because of Denmark’s handling over the stay, in Denmark, of a wanted Chechen leader. Soon after there were problems because of Chilingarov’s... Read More...
4 November 2009
In a fairly excoriating attack известия accuses western countries, particularly Britain, of trying to deliberately wreck Russia’s plans for the development of its Arctic resources through a complex legal dispute about shipyards and companies. The author makes the claim that Britain’s new aircraft carriers are there to develop its interests in the hydrocarbon rich Arctic,... Read More...
25 October 2009
It was said by Icelanders that Gordon Brown used British anti-terror legislation to seize the assets held in Britain of Icelandic banks that had become insolvent. This was not a good diplomatic move. This discussion shows how close Russia came to becoming, all of a sudden, Iceland’s number one ally. Now, after the IMF stepped in, there are attempts being made for Iceland to join the... Read More...
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