News & Views on the Russian presence within the Arctic Circle
7 May 2010
Taimyr local government officials report that there will be a meeting between interested parties taking place in Dudinka in the Taimyr region in order to discuss, ‘information on the construction of a new icebreaker, which will go into Dudinskiy port, the practical results of hydrometeorological support of navigation of ships along the Murmansk Norilsk Nickel-Murmansk-Dudinka, as well... Read More...
5 May 2010
Just a brief reminder of one of the central aspects of control over the NSR – the capacity to mount search and rescue operations. A local newspaper from Vladivokstok reminds its readers of the rescue of two fishing boats from the ice back in January by an ice-breaker from the Sakhalin shipping company. (There is more from this blog on search and rescue here). The rescue also involved... Read More...
14 April 2010
This article in независимая, which in my opinion often offers one of the more ‘realist’ approaches to Arctic geopolitics, revisits some old themes. The author claims that during the 20th century, when the USSR claimed much of the Arctic region, up to the north pole, that this did not elicit any combative responses from other countries. Now, however, with the... Read More...
1 April 2010
A company called Scanex has won a contract to provide satellite data for purposes of monitoring ice-conditions on the NSR. Data, I think the report is saying, will then be relayed to users via a portal run by Komosnimki. The contract was awarded by Atomflot. All of this, in the context of a certain amount of uncertainty as to the near future of the climate in the Arctic Seas, and... 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...
10 March 2010
независимая reports a SIPRI study into Chinese attitudes towards the Arctic and Russia’s plans for the development of the Arctic. Chinese interest is motivated by the potential that Russia will charge high rates for shipping along the NSR. Chinese participation in the recent Arctic Frontiers conference was noted on this blog here. The SIPRI author states that control... 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...
11 February 2010
It has been a long time coming but радио голос росии carried an interview with Artur Chilingarov, all round Russian Arctic hero, the kind of Arctic veteran that makes Pen Haddow look like BenFogle. His comments touch on a number of significant areas including: the claim at the UN where ‘cоблюсти свои национальные интересы России... Read More...
8 February 2010
Recent days have seen a number of contradictory arguments about what might happen to Russia under conditions of global warming. rbc.ru reports on an American study by the Pew Group which claims that melting Arctic ice will damage permafrost and create further unspecified problems, followed by a number of rather bland comments from one Alexander Bedritsky, Russian President of the WMO... Read More...
21 December 2009
In the light of the previous post and the statements made about the real difficulties in Arctic development these comments from the governor of the Arkhangelsk region are significant, especially given the conclusion to them in the article which hints at a fusion between state policy and the policy of United Russia, headed by Putin. The article on the necessity of developing Arctic resources... Read More...
SubscribeTo the Arctic Russia RSS feed to receive up to date news