Author: Arctic Politics

President Putin made a good point on the Arctic at the G20 press-conference: “I should say that we will not allow companies to proceed with their projects before they undergo a thorough environmental impact assessment. It is unacceptable to do otherwise, especially in the Far North where the natural environment is especially vulnerable”. The problem… Read more »

Very good issue of the World Today (produced by the Chatham House) on the arctic matters. And what makes it particularly noteworthy, is my article, certainly, which was also re-printed in Moscow Times. “Putin’s blurred Arctic vision” is the title – not my choice of words, but I can go with that.

I use this old picture of Soviet polar activities to illustrate a really important news: Greenpeace has proceeded with its work and its ice-breaker Arctic Sunrise has entered the Kara Sea despite receiving no permission from the Sevmorput administration. Russian media reports laconically on this enterprise, but much more can be found on the Greenpeace… Read more »

The Northern Fleet Naval Aviation exercises in the Barents Sea have the traditional agenda of hunting for “hostile” submarines. They may have an additional goal of making an impression on Koji Sekimizu, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization, who is taking a ride of the 50 Let Pobedy nuclear icebreaker in order to inspect the safety… Read more »

On this day thirteen years ago we still believed that some sailors on board the Kursk were alive…

The Arctic ice is about to hit a new historic low this month, and Rossiiskaya gazeta has proudly reported that nuclear ice-breaker 50 Let Pobedy made a voyage to the North Pole, which happened to be the 100th visit by a ship to this symbolic spot. What the newspaper is somewhat shy about is that… Read more »

It is 80 years ago – 2 August 1933 – that the unfortunate Chelyuskin left Murmansk for the voyage along the Sevmorput that became one of the legends of early Stalin’s era. And this is the link to a lengthy presentation of the voyage of Petr Velikii along the same route, which is supposed to… Read more »

The extremely hot weather in the Arctic was noticed even by the Fox News, not generally known for climate concerns, but for a more scientific coverage I would recommend this. The command of the Northern Fleet has decided to use this opportunity for sending the nuclear cruiser Petr Veliky (known also as the “presidental yacht”,… Read more »

Russian fleet of nuclear icebreakers (pictured here at its base Atomflot near Murmansk) has decommissioned the third ship of Arktika class, called Rossiya. Built in 1985, this ship became famous in 2007 taking the famous flag-planting expedition to the North Pole. With the addition of 50 Let Pobedy in 2007 (the construction started in 1989),… Read more »

The Arctic-info informs that the B-800 submarine Kaluga has finished sea trials after modernization and is ready to return to the Northern Fleet. There is a bit of context to this info – this Kilo-class (project 877) diesel sub was built back in 1989 (and named Vologodsky Komsomolets, yes, a bit funny). In 2002, it… Read more »