News & Views on the Russian presence within the Arctic Circle
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...
11 February 2010
A couple of agencies announce that 2010 will see the construction of a new, universal atomic powered ice-breaker, with 60 MW capacity and which will patrol the NSR, May to October in the East and all year around in the West. Meanwhile, infox has a report on NASA’s photographs of shrinking Arctic ice and is concerned about the possibility that this is a unidirectional process - ’но,... Read More...
27 January 2010
The fate of the Smolninskii was widely covered by a large number of news agencies. MIXA.TV has some good and rather scary footage of the kind of conditions that ship was in and many agencies reported that some of the crew were rescued my MI-8 helicopter. вести.ru has photos of the kind of ‘icing’ that led the ship to list, and which threatened to sink it. Eventually... Read More...
13 January 2010
In a comprehensive analysis of Russia’s geopolitical position in Stavropol Pravda two journalists present an account of an emerging multipolar world in which the transport of LNG from the Arctic and the revived northern sea route under conditions of global warming contribute to more equitable relations between countries. The authors make the point, however, that specialised marine... Read More...
4 January 2010
Not much has changed since arctic russia’s last post. In известия the Captain of the ice-breaker Lenin explains that the north is the last frontier of European civilization, that the north is the last untapped planetary reserve (this frequently used word ‘кладовая’ appears odd when translated literally as ‘pantry’ in English), that the future... 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...
10 December 2009
мурманск-вестник, always a good source, closer to the gritty realities of Arctic Russia today than many of the big nationals, carries what can only be described as a public annoucement. Dimitry Dmitrienko, Governor of Mumansk Oblast, sees a busy future for Murmansk, with increases in wages and over 3/4 of a billion roubles being spent in the region. He emphasizes ‘ the... Read More...
8 December 2009
Независимая газета publish some interesting details of the technical issues surrounding the new generation of ice-breakers that were ‘trailed’ last week. It seems as though the crucial thing is new reactor, called РИТМ-200, which will allow, ‘возможности контролируемого пуска реактора после длительной... Read More...
30 November 2009
риа-новости and a number of other agencies reported the comments of the former chief of the Northern Fleet, one Admiral Popov who in a report on the security of Russia - 2010 - expresses deep concern about the capabilities of the northern fleet. In a sense, this follow on from concerns about the internationalization of the Arctic. The Admiral makes specific reference to the... Read More...
25 November 2009
popmechanic.ru reports on the arrival of the Yamal ice-breaker, which was busy over the summer, and its arrival in Murmansk, where it is now docked alongside the Arktica - a legendary ice-breaker from Soviet times. This photograph of the bow of the Yamal published over the summer shows the teeth painted on the front and ‘popmechanic’ reports that this was painted there... Read More...
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