Global News Post Fastest Global News Portal
Related Articles
“We will not supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil — we will not supply anything,” Putin mentioned.
Sergei Karpukhin | Afp | Getty Images
Russia has lengthy been the geopolitical kingpin of the Arctic, with deeply-embedded army, business and strategic investments within the area.
But now that the U.S. and NATO are pivoting their center of attention to the Arctic for geoeconomic and safety causes, Moscow is getting tetchy in regards to the West’s newfound pastime.
That’s most likely to be anticipated, given Russia’s territorial stake within the area: Russia spans 53% (or over 22,990 miles) of the Arctic Ocean beach, and out of its inhabitants of round 146 million other folks, 2.5 thousands and thousands Russians reside and paintings there, in keeping with the Arctic Institute, a middle for circumpolar safety research.
For locals — and the broader Russian economic system — strategic drivers of jobs, funding and expansion come with oil, gasoline and mineral extraction industries, fisheries, and infrastructure and transportation logistics, specifically associated with the Northern Sea Route, a significant Arctic delivery path for Russia between Europe and Asia.
In addition, Russia maintains its sea-based nuclear deterrent within the Arctic and has quite a few army bases and airfields there, as smartly a specialised fleet of ice breakers to facilitate industry, transportation and useful resource extraction within the territory.
This is why Russia watches heavily when U.S. President Donald Trump says he will take over the resource-rich Arctic island of Greenland, or when NATO carries out Arctic conflict video games.
“NATO countries in general are increasingly designating the Far North as a springboard for possible conflicts,’ Russian President Vladimir Putin commented as NATO allies conducted war drills in Norway in March that involved 10,000 NATO troops from nine allied nations.
The exercises were designed, NATO said, to hone their skills, military capabilities and cooperation for excessive chilly climate conflict.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits a nuclear submarine base March 26, 2025, in Murmansk, Russia. Putin was on a day-long trip to Murmansk.
Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Putin was not convinced, stating that it “is plain that the position and significance of the Arctic each for Russia and for the entire global is rising. But, sadly, geopolitical festival, the battle for positions on this area, could also be intensifying.”
Shortly after NATO’s exercises, Russia’s Northern Fleet (tasked with defending the Arctic seas along Northern Russia, including the Barents Sea and Kara Sea) begun exercises in the Arctic involving 20 ships and around 1,500 personnel, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
CNBC has contacted the Kremlin for further comment and is awaiting a response.
Russia defending interests
Russia is looking to aggressively expand its economic interests in the Arctic, with the region contributing significant value to the economy.
“Today, the Arctic already produces 7.5% of Russia’s gross home product and greater than 11% of its exports,” Alexey Chekunkov, minister for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, said last week in comments reported by newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and translated by Google.
Russia was “imposing global-scale funding initiatives within the Arctic and creating the arena’s biggest community of Arctic towns,” he added.
“As the initiatives that experience already begun are carried out, the significance of the Arctic in Russia’s economic system, logistics, and safety will best building up,” Chekunkov said, noting that “it’s tricky to overestimate the significance of the Northern Sea Route, which gives a 40% shorter path between Europe and Asia.”
The Prirazlomnaya offshore ice-resistant oil-producing platform is seen at Pechora Sea, Russia.
Sergey Anisimov | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
International sanctions designed to degrade Russia’s oil and gas sector following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have affected some big projects in the region, with liquefied natural gas (LNG) output from the Arctic LNG 2 project and a mega oil project planned by Vostok Oil among the major infrastructure projects hit by Western sanctions.
Russia has looked to evade sanctions by using a so-called “shadow fleet” of vessels and tankers to export its oil and gas supplies to customers still willing to buy them, with Ukraine’s Western allies playing catch-up to try to close loopholes that have allowed Moscow to do this.
Marie-Anne Coninsx, former EU ambassador for the Arctic, told CNBC Wednesday that the Arctic was “of an important strategic pastime for Russia, economically and [in terms of] safety. It’s a huge supply of GDP on account of the extraction of power assets, and using the Northern Sea Route is a gigantic source of revenue for Russia. And with this source of revenue, and regardless of the sanctions, Russia has been ready to finance one 3rd of the price of the conflict in Ukraine with those exports,” she told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”
“The sanctions are having an impact however must move additional, as it it’s touching the the Russian economic system, however there’s the opposite facet of safety, as a result of Russians recognized its nuclear powers are within the Arctic, and this can be a severe risk for Europe,” she mentioned.
The West playing catch-up?
One of the problems for Europe and NATO’s Arctic strategy is that it is only playing catch-up when compared to Russia’s long-standing development of its Arctic territory.
Russia began reinvesting in Arctic affairs in the mid-2000s, said analysts at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), adding that “the Kremlin stays adamant in announcing whole keep an eye on over the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation,” as it looks to protect perceived vital interests along the Northern Sea Route.
In contrast, the West’s renewed interest in the Arctic has been largely spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Until [that], I might say there was once no actual NATO consciousness of the protection risk within the Arctic, it was once neglecting its northern flank,” former EU ambassador to the Arctic Coninsx told CNBC.
“But because of the invasion of Russia in Ukraine, and specifically because of the brand new club [in the alliance] of Sweden and Finland, there’s a strengthening safety power from NATO in northern Europe … And for the European Union, it has grow to be extra essential for geo-economic and geopolitical safety causes.”
The Arctic “is changing into the middle of global consideration” also for “geoeconomic causes” — including the fact that climate change meant the wealth of natural resources and critical minerals in the Arctic were now more accessible, and there are more shipping opportunities along the Northern Sea Route.
“Therefore there’s an greater pastime additionally for main geopolitical avid gamers, now not best of the U.S., but additionally from non-Arctic states, main ones like China,” she mentioned.
U.S. Marines in military vehicles are pictured as they participate in a military exercise called “Cold Response 2022”, gathering around 30,000 troops from NATO member countries plus Finland and Sweden, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, near Bjerkvik in the Arctic Circle, Norway, March 24, 2022.
Yves Herman | Reuters
U.S. interest in the Arctic has also been renewed by the Trump administration, with the president vowing to take over Greenland, potentially with military force. That did not go down well in either Greenland, Denmark or Europe, with widespread condemnation of the president’s posture on the matter.
Interestingly, Russia seemed to take a more sanguine position on Trump’s interest, saying it was watching developments closely.
Eyeing an opportunity to leverage its own experience in the “Far North” across the Arctic Circle, and most likely to ingratiate itself with Trump, Bloomberg reported in February that Moscow was once all for creating joint initiatives with the U.S. round herbal useful resource extraction and transportation within the Arctic.
CNBC has requested the Kremlin and White House for additional remark at the file and is watching for a reaction.
