Putin outlines ambitious Arctic expansion program – “We need to make the Northern sea route safe and commercially feasible”
By Vladimir Isachenkov and Irina Titova
9 April 2019
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) – President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday put forward an ambitious program to secure Russia’s foothold in the Arctic, including efforts to build new ports and other infrastructure facilities and expand an icebreaker fleet.
Speaking at the Arctic forum in St. Petersburg attended by leaders of Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, Putin said that Russia plans to dramatically increase cargo shipments across the Arctic sea route.
He said that the amount of cargo carried across the shipping lane is set to increase from 20 million metric tons last year to 80 million tons in 2025.
“This is a realistic, well-calculated and concrete task,” Putin said. “We need to make the Northern sea route safe and commercially feasible.”
He noted that Russia, the only nation with a nuclear icebreaker fleet, is moving to expand it.
Russia currently has four nuclear icebreakers, and Putin said that three new such ships are currently under construction. By 2035, Russia stands to have a fleet of 13 heavy icebreakers, including nine nuclear-powered ones, he said. […]
The Russian leader emphasized the challenges to the polar region posed by global warming, saying that Russian scientists believe that the climate is changing faster than indicated by earlier estimates.
“I wouldn’t like to see the Arctic turning into something like Crimea, and Crimea becoming a desert due to our failure to take timely measures,” he said.
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