Arctic policy of Russia
The Northern Sea Route is of particular importance to Russia for transportation, and the Russian Security Council is considering projects for its development.
[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.
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] The Russian Ministry of Economic Development has identified eight Arctic Support Zones along the Arctic coast of Russia on which funds and projects will be focused, with the aim of fostering the economic potential of the Northern Sea Route while ensuring that the Russian presence will not be limited to resource extraction.
From the 11th to the 16th centuries, Russian coastal dwellers of the White Sea, or pomors, gradually explored other parts of the Arctic coastline, going as far as the Ob and Yenisey rivers, establishing trading posts in Mangazeya.
Continuing the search of furs and walrus and mammoth ivory, the Siberian Cossacks under Mikhail Stadukhin reached the Kolyma River by 1644.
A party of the expedition personally led by Bering and Chirikov discovered southern Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and the Commander Islands,[12] while the parties led by Stepan Malygin, Dmitry Ovtsyn, Fyodor Minin, Semyon Chelyuskin, 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).
On September 15, 2010, Foreign Ministers Jonas Gahr Støre and 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.
[15][18] On March 12, 1997, Russia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which allowed countries to make claims to extended continental shelves.
[22] Rock, mud, water, and plant samples at the seabed were collected and brought back to Russia for scientific study.
[23] The Natural Resources Ministry of Russia announced that the bottom samples collected from the expedition are similar to those found on continental shelves.
[34] On October 4, 2010, Russian Navy commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky was quoted as saying: "We are observing the penetration of a host of states which .
[40] Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced plans on July 16, 2011, for the creation of two brigades that would be stationed in the Arctic.
[43] Russian research has focused on the Arctic seabed, marine life, meteorology, exploration, and natural resources, among other topics.
[45] In July 2011 the icebreaker Rossiya and the research ship Akademik Fyodorov began conducting seismic studies north of Franz Josef Land to find evidence to back up Russia's territorial claims in the Arctic.
[citation needed] The Lena-2011 expedition, a joint Russian-German project headed by Jörn Thiede, left for the Laptev Sea and the Lena River in the summer of 2011.
Travel along Northern Sea Route takes only one-third the distance needed to go through the Suez Canal, without as high a risk of pirates.
[53][54] Even when "open" this route is not totally ice free and requires Russian icebreaker and navigational support to ensure safety of passage.
[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.
[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.
[60] In attempting to extract gas and oil in the Arctic region, Gazprom encounter harsh climate and the long lines of communication.
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.
[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.
[70] According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there are 90 billion barrels (1.4×1010 m3) of oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet (4.7×1013 m3) of natural gas north of the Arctic Circle.
[72] In September 2013, Gazprom's oil drilling activities in the Arctic have drawn protests from environmental groups particularly Greenpeace.
[73] On September 18, the Greenpeace vessel MV Arctic Sunrise staged a protest and attempted to board Gazprom's Prirazlomnaya platform.
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).
[75][76] The Russian government has intended to charge the Greenpeace activists with piracy, which carries a maximum penalty of fifteen years of imprisonment.
