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In a new national directive, Russia has asserted claims on large sections of the Arctic Ocean. The tone of the document is openly aggressive, prompting fears of increasing international tension over who has the right to exploit the mineral-rich territory.
Cold temperatures and boredom are normally the order of the day at Russia’s northernmost border post on the Arctic Ocean island of Alexandra Land. Icebergs as big as houses drift past, while old diesel drums stand silent in the dry air. Everybody wants a bit of the Arctic these days. Here, the midnight sun in the Arctic Circle near the Norwegian town of Longyearbyen.
Gone are the days when the engines of bombers carrying nuclear warheads droned over Nagurskoye military station. Nowadays, there is only one flight a month to the station, which is home to 30 soldiers, 16 scientists and six meteorologists who report to the FSB, Russia’s powerful domestic intelligence service. They live in austere wooden huts, braving the indifference of the Arctic.
In September of last year, this ghost station of the Cold War was suddenly returned to the center of geopolitical events, when two dozen government representatives were flown there, including Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. They quickly agreed that “the Arctic must become Russia’s main strategic base for raw materials.” Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Security Council of Russia, was quick to point out: “If we do not become active now, we will simply be forced out.”
The group of powerful men decided to have a comprehensive strategy prepared for development of the Arctic by 2020. The document will be released this week.
Some of the content has already been leaked, revealing an uncompromising tone. “It cannot be ruled out that the battle for raw materials will be waged with military means,” the explosive document reads.
It seems that Russia, with almost one-third of its territory lying north of the Arctic Circle, is about to prove that the fears of Western nations bordering the Arctic are not unjustified. The nuclear power will soon begin flexing its muscles along the icy shores of its giant realm.
The interest of nations bordering the Arctic is growing as polar ice recedes. One week before leaving office, outgoing US President George W. Bush unveiled a strategic plan for the Arctic region. Canada, Denmark and Norway have launched their own initiatives. Even the European Union announced a new polar policy in November.
Meanwhile, the government-controlled newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta is preparing Russians for the notion that “the fight for the Arctic will be the initial spark for a new division of the world.” Artur Chilingarov, a member of the Russia parliament and Moscow’s chief ideologue when it comes to conquering the Arctic, puts it this way: “We are not prepared to give our Arctic to anyone.”
Chilingarov — who in August 2007 used a remote-controlled submarine arm to plant a Russian flag made of titanium on the ocean floor at the North Pole at a depth of 4,261 meters (13,976 feet) — wants to “present evidence to the United Nations within one year” that the North Pole belongs to the Russians. His threat to those in the West who disagree is simple: “If these rights are not recognized, Russia will withdraw from the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
Alexander Dugin, a political scientist and well-known intellectual backer of Moscow’s neo-imperial claims to a Greater Russia, becomes so caught up in nationalist fervor that he loses his grasp on biological realities: “The purpose of our being lies in the expansion of our space. The shelf belongs to us. Polar bears live there, Russian polar bears. And penguins live there, Russian penguins.” …
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