Tensions with Russia Heat up the Melting Arctic
(PONARS Policy Memo) In a 1987 speech in Murmansk, Mikhail Gorbachev famously called for the Arctic to become a “zone of peace.” Since the end of the Cold War, Arctic states…
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Arctic
31 posts
New Mobilities and Social Changes in Russia’s Arctic Regions [New Book]
(Routledge) The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in the history of mankind, and the circumpolar regions are not exempt from this global process. This evolution is linked…
The Kremlin’s Arctic Plans: More Gutted than Grand
(PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo) Over the past decade, Russia has launched a diplomatic and symbolic offensive in the Arctic, supported by increased military activity, grandiose economic plans, and showy assertions…
Orttung named ‘principal investigator’ of NSF grant to study the Arctic
Russia’s city of Norilsk is home to nearly 180,000 people. It has shopping complexes and supermarkets and even nightclubs, and it almost seems like any urban center—except that it’s located…
Baev: Air drops of paratroopers near the North Pole hardly makes the right impression on potential investors
(Vice News) Today Russia is wrapping up a massive military exercise in the Arctic. The five-day excursion involved some 80,000 troops, 220 aircraft, 41 ships, and 15 submarines. While the scale and…
Laruelle: Arctic is one of the last places for US-Russia cooperation
(RIA Novosti), WASHINGTON – Tense relations between Russia and the US and NATO could potentially be cooled through Arctic cooperation, according to the program director at the George Washington Institute…
How to Understand Russia’s Arctic Strategy
During most of the late 20th century, the Arctic region was primarily a zone of military interests, used by both NATO and Soviet strategic forces as bases for their nuclear…
Q&A: Russian who urged Arctic conservation is unbowed after Putin’s insult
(Los Angeles Times) Political science professor Sergei Medvedev, a longtime lover and explorer of the Arctic, drew the ire of Russian President Vladimir Putin when he recently called for international…
Putin in Denial About Economic Stagnation, and in a Rage About Arctic Sovereignty
(EDM) State budgets are a difficult topic of debate in all countries. And Russia, which used to pass them fairly easily, is now facing some unpleasant realities related to the…
Putin’s Blurred Arctic Vision
The Arctic touches deeper feelings in the Russian political mind than just greed for resources or fear of military threat. Beneath typically grandiloquent rhetoric, there is a deep sense of belonging to the vast cold and clean spaces…