Russian military base «Arctic Shamrock» on the island of Alexandra Land in the Franz Josef Land archipelago. File photoMOSCOW, June 17Russia is ramping up economic and military activity in the Arctic to turn it into a «battlefield of the future,» said Times columnist Larisa Brown, citing a Civitas report. northern region. Thus, the material notes that in recent years, 50 military facilities have appeared in the country in the Arctic, which, according to the authors of the report, indicates the imminent transformation of the region into a place of geopolitical rivalry. «The melting of glaciers as a result of global warming opens up new trade routes in the Far North , which, as Western countries fear, could lead to increased rivalry,» the Times said. «/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/41661f44358d28179d3368dfc1b8a7ea.jpg» />“We are finished”: the British spoke out about the Russian military base in the Arctic . Moreover, Russian deposits of such elements are estimated at 30 trillion dollars. In addition, a third of the world's undiscovered gas reserves are located in the Arctic. The authors of the report believe that such significant mineral deposits will allow Russia to increase supplies to China. The Northern Sea Route is the shortest sea route between the European part of Russia and the Far East; is defined by Russian law as «the historically established national unified transport communication of Russia in the Arctic». In December 2020, amendments to the Merchant Shipping Code came into force, according to which ships flying the Russian flag are assigned the exclusive right to carry out sea transportation of hydrocarbons produced in the Russian territory and loaded onto ships in the waters of the Northern Sea Route, to the first point of unloading or reloading. The same applies to the transportation of oil, natural gas, including LNG, as well as gas condensate and coal. According to the decree of Vladimir Putin signed in 2018, cargo transportation along the Northern Sea Route should reach 50 million tons per year by 2024. To ensure the growth of cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route, Russia is actively developing a nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet, which has no analogues in the world.
