News & Views on the Russian presence within the Arctic Circle
8 May 2010
Coming after the agreement over the Barents Sea and this week’s announcment of naval joint-exercises between Russia and Norway, which will test inter-operability in various scenarios such as emergency and rescue, armed attack on instillations, Norway is now focussing its Arctic diplomacy on the Arctic Council. The report in иносми is actually a translation of a Canadian article... 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...
9 December 2009
Artur Chilingarov talked of a new heroic age of Arctic exploration in speeches to mark Heroes of the Fatherland day (9th Dec.) at a Military Academy in Moscow. ‘«Вообще освоение Арктики – это целая героическая эпоха’, stated Chilingarov, as quoted in the always interesting полит.ru. The translation here is not that clear... Read More...
2 December 2009
gzt.ru report the opinion of the Head of Analytical Department of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis Alexander Khramchikhin who argues that Canadian blocks on potential agreements before the NATO-Russia Council are related to ‘Борьба за Арктику’ – i.e., the struggle for the Arctic. This opinion was also shared by political commantator Fyodor... Read More...
24 November 2009
An article in ино.СМИ.ru, which is actually a Spanish article re-published, describes the importance of ex-FSB Director Nikolai Petrushev now Chairman of Russia’s Security Council. The article draws attention to the claims that were made about him in Litvenyenko’s book ’Blowing up Russia.’ The article asserts that this man – Petrushev - sees... Read More...
13 November 2009
In his риановости interview Roger Howard is quoted as talking about ’конфликт может быть спровоцирован какими-то неординарными обстоятельствами’, i.e., conflict arising from some kind of unusual circumstances. Although there are problems with Howard’s model and metaphor other sources have... Read More...
5 November 2009
Many Russian sources address the comments made by a British expert on the problems of the Arctic, who uses the phrase ‘new cold war’ in an interview with РИАНовости. This phrase ‘new cold war’ is often used by journalists in the west searching for a headline but what does it actually mean? It is likely to be the case that the USA and Russia will fight... Read More...
27 October 2009
There are some interesting discussions taking place at the moment on the future of the Black Sea fleet in the Crimea and the naval base at Sevastopol. One author writes that Russia’s relations with Ukraine and the West are a geopolitical faultline of the post-Soviet space where dynamics are still unfolding and largely unknown. He also argues that the importance that Russia attaches... Read More...
10 October 2009
The Norwegians are in the news again. As reported in телекомпания the Commander of Russia’s northern fleet has visited Norway’s Defence Command HQ. On the 1st August, as stated here, the operational control of Norway’s Defence command was moved north to Reytane, which is in the Arctic. (Norway is described as being the first to do this). Relations... Read More...
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