Arctic Russia

commentary on the barents sea

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 of a ‘thaw‘ in relations to charactarize events and argues that a commitment to a legal solutions will help Russia’s interests. 

Indeed it will, but Putin’s identification with the white bear, the real master of the Arctic, is international relations symbolism and not only environmentalism, as noted by the Moscow Post (yesterday) and the realist commentary on policy continues while Medvedev is dining in the European capitals. 

Markep.ru reports on the activities of Roscosmos and its draft plan for satellite monitoring of the Arctic under the headline, ‘Russia is going to take the Arctic from space’ while the Strategic Culture Foundation goes back to the 2020 document which envisages ”troops, military formations and bodies in the Arctic zone of Russia, capable of military security in the various conditions of the military-political situation.”

Putin may have been in the Arctic protecting polar bears but as he added, ‘Геополитические и самые глубинные интересы России связаны с Арктикой’ – i.e., geopolitical and deepest interests of Russia are connected with the Arctic’: defense, security, economy and transport.