Month: April 2013

Russia’s Arctic ‘possessions’

This concise article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta gives a good impression on the conference focused on the Sevmorput prospects in the Shirshov Institute. A more alarmist analysis on China’s penetration into Russia’s Arctic ‘possessions’ appeared a month ago.

‘Start celebrating’

I examined carefully Putin’s extra-long Q-&-A ‘Direct Line’ for any matters of relevance for the Arctic, and there was indeed one question about instituting a Day of Polar Explorer – and Putin’s laconic answer was – ‘Start celebrating’. Not that surprising considering that the Arctic was barely mentioned in his series of articles outlining his… Read more »

Strategy for the Arctic Zone Development 2020

I thought that a must-have thing for a blog on Russia and the Arctic is a link to the Strategy for the Arctic Zone Development 2020 approved by President Putin in February 2013. To my chagrin, I am unable to find an official English translation, but the Russian text is here. The document is remarkably… Read more »

Seminar on Arctic security

The first entry in this newly-born blog is about the capstone seminar on the Arctic security that the IISS organized in Stockholm on 19 April 2013. My task was to comment on the presentations of two foreign ministers: Carl Bildt from Sweden and Erkki Tuomijola from Finland. My prepared opening was “These presentations are not… Read more »