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...
28 April 2010
This report in прийм-тасс emphasizes that historic handshakes (vecti has videofootage of the press conference) are not quite the same thing as detailed agreement. The report states that, ‘Москва рассчитывает на диалог по этому вопросу’, which roughly means that Moscow is considering the dialogue on this issue, which is the precise... Read More...
27 April 2010
The importance of this doesn’t need to be emphasized but utro.ru have reported that Norway and Russia have concluded an agreement about the delineation of maritime boundaries in the Barents Sea which will be called, ‘Agreement on maritime delimitation and cooperation in the Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean.” The report stresses that the precise legal details still need... Read More...
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...
24 April 2010
infox.ru reports on Norway’s negotiations with Russia concerning the Barents Sea ahead of the visit next week of President Medvedev to Oslo. The headline emphasizes that Norway is in no hurry to conclude an agreement, which contradicts some opinion expressed before when the Norwegians went to Moscow. The tangle of issues includes Spitzbergen and even the Shtokman project. The... Read More...
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...
8 February 2010
rusnord continues the reporting of the recent conversations between the Norwegian and Russian foreign ministers. This is the most significant part – ‘ По мнению экспертов, соответствующее соглашение нужно Норвегии намного больше, чем России, что позволит Кремлю получить от... Read More...
5 February 2010
Many agencies are reporting and commentating on the visit of the Norwegian Foreign Minister to Moscow. Although the talks were wide ranging, they seemed to be focussed on the tricky issue of the delineation of the maritime boundary in the Barents Sea. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov answered questions about the Shtokman project and maintained that these issues were purely commerical. ... Read More...
28 January 2010
In what could only really be described as an amazing bit of news хибины.ru is reporting that Gazprom could be forced to abandon its ambitious plans for the development of the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea. There have been indications before that confidence in the project was shaky and, if these predictions are true, then this would be a massive blow to Russia’s Arctic... Read More...
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