News & Views on the Russian presence within the Arctic Circle
31 March 2010
While the meetings between the Arctic Five took place in Canada there were many reports of increased geographic activity from the Russian side. риа-новости and other sources have reported that the state budget for geography wil have increased by 6.3% during 2010. GZT.ru reports on a completed application to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf for an extension... 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...
29 March 2010
Further to this post, which included links to articles about the difficulties attracting younger people to work in the north, a Ukrainian agency has posted this account of a demonstration in Arkhagelsk against the Government. Alongside banners which posed questions for the premiership of Putin the specific demands, as reported, seem to have included the lack of heat (ironically oil and... 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...
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...
22 March 2010
вести.ru has excellent first hand and detailed video footage of the establishment of the Russian polar station base Borneo, which I think took place over the weekend. The interviews with the scientists and pilots on board plus the commentary in вести emphasize the work that the station will do in understanding processes of climate change, which as we all know is of some interest... Read More...
19 March 2010
Here we go. First reports were in yesterday concerning Artur Chilingarov’s plans for high-latitude drifting ice station Barneo. This ice-station is something of an annual event and is largely dedicated to scientific work but it will perhaps take on greater symbolic significance this year. As Aviation Explorer notes, events this year take place after Medvedev’s remarks to... 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...
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