Arctic policy of Russia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Map showing Russian claims in the Arctic.
Russia has an extensive sea bottom claim in the Arctic region. The large hashed area reflects Russia's current extended continental shelf claim

The Arctic policy of Russia is the domestic and

the Russian region of the Arctic. The Russian region of the Arctic is defined in the "Russian Arctic Policy" as all Russian possessions located north of the Arctic Circle. Approximately one-fifth of Russia's landmass is north of the Arctic Circle. Russia is one of five littoral states bordering the Arctic Ocean[a]. As of 2010, out of 4 million inhabitants of the Arctic, roughly 2 million lived in arctic Russia, making it the largest arctic country by population. However, in recent years Russia's Arctic population has been declining at an excessive rate.[2][needs update
]

The stated goals of Russia in its Arctic policy are to utilize its natural resources, protect its

Border Guard/Coast Guard presence there. Using the Arctic for economic gain has been done by Russia for centuries for shipping and fishing. Russia has plans to exploit the large offshore resource deposits in the Arctic. The Northern Sea Route is of particular importance to Russia for transportation, and the Russian Security Council is considering projects for its development. The Security Council also stated a need for increasing investment in Arctic infrastructure.[4]

Russia conducts extensive research in the Arctic region, notably the drifting ice stations and the Arktika 2007 expedition, which was the first to reach the seabed at the North Pole. The research is partly aimed to back up Russia's territorial claims, specifically those related to Russia's extended continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean.

History

On October 1, 1987, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, delivered the Murmansk Initiative stating six goals of the Soviet Union's Arctic foreign policy: establish a nuclear-free zone in Northern Europe; reduce military activity in the Baltic, Northern, Norwegian and Greenland Seas; cooperate on resource development; form an international conference on Arctic scientific research coordination; cooperate in environmental protection and management; and open the Northern Sea Route.[5]

Geography

Map showing the Kara Sea. Map showing the East Siberian Sea.

The Russian

resource extraction.[6][7]

The eight zones are Kola, Arkhangelsk, Nenets, Vorkuta, Yamal-Nenets, Taimyr-Turukhan, North Yakutia and Chukotka.[8] In the North Yakutia area, the project includes reconstruction of the Tiksi sea port and the port of Zelenomysky.[9] In the Arkhangelsk zone, this will include the construction of the Belkomur Railway [ru].[10]

Exploration

The first recorded voyage to the Russian Arctic was by the

Semyon Dezhnyov discovered the Bering Strait in 1648,[11] with Dezhnyov establishing a permanent Russian settlement near the present day Anadyr
.

After

Vasily Pronchischev, Khariton Laptev and Dmitry Laptev mapped most of the Arctic coastline of Russia (from the White Sea in Europe to the mouth of Kolyma River in Asia).[13] The expedition resulted in 62 large maps and charts of the Arctic region.[12]

Territorial claims

Modern Russian territorial claims to the Arctic officially date back to April 15, 1926, when the Soviet Union claimed land between 32°04'35"E and 168°49'30"W. However, this claim specifically only applied to

Sergei Lavrov, of Norway and Russia respectively, signed a treaty that effectively divided the disputed territory in half between the two countries, and also agreed to co-manage resources in that region where they overlap national sectors.[16][17][18] The two countries had already been co-managing fisheries in the Barents since the 1978 Grey Zone Agreement, which has been renewed annually since it was signed.[15][18]

MIR submersibles
were used in the Arktika 2007 expedition to the North Pole.

On March 12, 1997, Russia ratified the

UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). Russia claimed that two underwater mountain chains - the Lomonosov and Mendeleev ridges - within the Russian sector of the Arctic were extensions of the Eurasian continent and thus part of the Russian continental shelf. The UN CLCS neither validated nor invalidated the claim but requested Russia to submit additional data to substantiate its claim.[20] Russia planned to submit additional data to the CLCS in 2012.[21]

In August 2007, a Russian expedition named

Natural Resources Ministry of Russia announced that the bottom samples collected from the expedition are similar to those found on continental shelves. Russia is using this to substantiate its claim that the Lomonosov Ridge in its sector is a continuation of the continental shelf that extends from Russia, and that Russia has a legitimate claim to that seabed.[24] The United States and Canada dismissed the flag planting as purely symbolic and legally meaningless.[25] Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed,[18] telling reporters: "The aim of this expedition is not to stake Russia's claim but to show that our shelf reaches to the North Pole."[26] He also confirmed that Arctic territory issues "can be tackled solely on the basis of international law, the International Convention on the Law of the Sea and in the framework of the mechanisms that have in accordance with it been created for determining the borders of states which have a continental shelf."[27] In another interview Sergey Lavrov said: "I was amazed by my Canadian counterpart’s statement that we are planting flags around. We’re not throwing flags around. We just do what other discoverers did. The purpose of the expedition is not to stake whatever rights of Russia, but to prove that our shelf extends to the North Pole. By the way the flag on the Moon, it was the same".[28]

Foreign Ministers and other officials representing Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States met in Ilulissat, Greenland in May 2008, at the Arctic Ocean Conference and announced the Ilulissat Declaration. Among other things the declaration stated that any demarcation issues in the Arctic should be resolved on a bilateral basis between contesting parties.[29][30]

An example of such bilateral agreement was achieved between Russia and Norway in 2010.

Military

Part of Russia's current Arctic policy includes maintaining a military presence in the region. In 2014, the

Russian Military also reportedly announced in June 2008 that it would increase the operational radius of its Northern Fleet submarines.[34]

The first

Atomflot, the state company that owns the fleet, to be at least partially owned by private investors. The government is expected to retain a controlling share in the company.[39]

Russia says that it has military units specifically trained for Arctic combat.

Vladimir Vysotsky
was quoted as saying: "We are observing the penetration of a host of states which . . . are advancing their interests very intensively, in every possible way, in particular China," and that Russia would "not give up a single inch" in the Arctic.

Research

Russia has conducted research in the Arctic for decades. The country is the only one that uses

drift stations- research facilities seasonally deployed on drift ice- and also has other research stations in its Arctic zone. The first drift station, North Pole-1, was established on May 21, 1937, by the Soviet Union.[43] Russian research has focused on the Arctic seabed, marine life, meteorology, exploration, and natural resources, among other topics. Recent research has also been focusing on studying the Lomonosov Ridge to collect evidence that could strengthen Russian territorial claims to the seabed in that region within the Russian sector of the Arctic.[43][44]

Akademik Fyodorov has been actively used with the new Akademik Tryoshnikov
to conduct research in the Arctic.

Drifting station

Lena River in the summer of 2011. It was to study Siberian climate and climate change, as well as gather information about the Russian continental shelf.[46] The head of the expedition, who is also the chairman of the European Arctic Commission, expressed confidence that Russia will gather the evidence needed to confirm its claim to additional parts of the Arctic shelf.[47]

In 2011, research stations under construction included one on

Svalbard Islands, which was anticipated to be finished in 2013 and will focus on geophysical, hydrological, and geological research.[49][needs update
]

Over the summer of 2015, Russia built a large Federal Security Service (Russ. FSB) Border Guard base on

Nagurskoye, above the 80th parallel. The new complex is made of multiple inter-connected buildings and can house a company of 150 soldiers for up to 18 months without the need of re-supply.[50]

Economy

Photograph of ice in the Arctic Ocean.
Reduction in Arctic ice due to climate change may open up more economic opportunities in the Arctic.

Russia's economic interests in the Arctic are based on two things - natural resources and maritime transport.

pirates.[52]

The route is currently open for up to eight weeks a year, and studies are predicting that climate change will lead to further reduction in Arctic ice, which can lead to greater use of the route.[53][54] Even when "open" this route is not totally ice free and requires Russian icebreaker and navigational support to ensure safety of passage. Currently 1.5 million tonnes (1,500,000 long tons; 1,700,000 short tons) of goods are transported along the Northern Sea Route every year.[53] Traffic through the Route is expected to increase tenfold by 2020, and six tankers have already gone through in 2010.[52] The Russian government estimates that annual cargo traffic could reach 85 million metric tons,[55] and shipping along the Route could account for a quarter of cargo between Europe and Asia by 2030.[56] However, using the Northern Sea Route extensively will require vast expansion of Russia's current infrastructure in the Arctic, especially ports and naval vessels.[53] In August 2011 Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of Russia's Security Council, stated that the poor condition of infrastructure in the Arctic hinders development there, reducing the attractiveness of the region's resources for development.[4] The infrastructure is worse in the eastern part of Russia, which also contains more resources.[4] Recent economic sanctions imposed on Russia have additionally weakened the NSR's viability for foreign investors and in 2014 the overall number of voyages across the passage has fallen dramatically from 71 to 53.[57]

The

deepwater port, and Amderma, site of the Amderma Airport, to its railway system by 2030.[52] Prime Minister Putin also announced that a year-round port would be constructed on the Yamal Peninsula.[59]

But so far, Russia's concentration on production of oil and gas on the Yamal Peninsula met with huge challenges.[60] In attempting to extract gas and oil in the Arctic region, Gazprom encounter harsh climate and the long lines of communication. So Gazprom requires large investments with high risk and a long investment horizon and is dependent on the energy prices continuing to be high so that the extraction is profitable. International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that the majority of the Arctic fields are not profitable if the world market price of oil is below 120 dollars per barrel. At the time of this writing (May 11, 2017), the price of Brent oil has fallen to around 50 dollars per barrel. Meanwhile, since Russian law only allows for the state energy companies Gazprom (mainly gas) and Rosneft (mainly oil) to extract oil and gas from the continental shelf – but since these two firms do not have at their own disposal the necessary technological expertise – they have entered into partnerships with a number of foreign firms.[60]

The Russian Government is also attempting to increase foreign investment in its Arctic resources. In August 2011 Rosneft, a Russian government-operated oil company, signed a deal with ExxonMobil in which Rosneft received some of Exxon's global oil assets in exchange for the joint development of Russian Arctic resources by both companies.[61] This agreement includes a $3.2 billion hydrocarbon exploration of the Kara and Black seas (although the Black Sea is not in the Arctic),[62] as well as the joint development of ice-resistant drilling platforms and other Arctic technologies.[63] This deal followed a failed attempt at a similar cooperation between Rosneft and BP in May.[61] Chevron is currently in talks with Rosneft about jointly developing Arctic resources.[64]

Russia is the only country in the world planning to use

gas rigs in the Arctic Ocean in the future.[65][66] The Prirazlomnoye field, an offshore oilfield in the Pechora Sea that will include up to 40 wells, is currently under construction and drilling is expected to start in early 2012. It will be the world's first ice-resistant oil platform and will also be the first offshore Arctic platform.[67][68]

Russia wants to establish its Arctic possessions as a major resource base by 2020.

petroleum resources are estimated to be in the Arctic. The dominant portion of offshore Arctic hydrocarbon (oil and gas), as reflected in the USGS studies, is located within the current uncontested Exclusive Economic Zones of the five nations bordering the Arctic.[72]

In September 2013, Gazprom's oil drilling activities in the Arctic have drawn protests from environmental groups particularly Greenpeace. Greenpeace has opposed oil drilling in the Arctic on the grounds that oil drilling would cause damage to the Arctic ecosystem and that there are no safety plans in place to prevent oil spills.

Russian Coast Guard seized control of the ship, and arrested the activists. Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace USA, stated that the arrest of the Arctic 30 is the stiffest response that Greenpeace has encountered from a government since the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985 by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence services, the Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE).[74] Earlier in August 2012, Greenpeace had also staged similar protests against the same oil rig.[75][76] The Russian government has intended to charge the Greenpeace activists with piracy, which carries a maximum penalty of fifteen years of imprisonment.[73] Thirty members of the crew of "Arctic Sunrise" have been detained for 48 hours by authorities in Murmansk. The crew members come from 19 countries. Several members were arrested after having assaulted the Prirazlomnaya drill rig in the Pechora Sea.[77]

See also

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  1. ^ "Iceland is generally not regarded as an Arctic Ocean littoral State as its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is not adjacent to the high seas portion of the Central Arctic Ocean."[1]

External links

Literature

  • Kharlampieva, N. "The Transnational Arctic and Russia." In Energy Security and Geopolitics in the Arctic: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century, edited by Hooman Peimani. Singapore: World Scientific, 2012