Participants at the 22nd April International Conference of the Higher School of Economics has suggested making Arctic development a separate national project.  Specialists believe that the launching of the national Arctic project will make it possible to involve industrial enterprises and research centers in developing the northern territories. Experts see the Northern Sea Route as the main element and driving force of regional growth.

“The Arctic’s natural wealth and nature conservation projects should become a foundation for generating added value by localizing hi-tech and resource-intensive production facilities and by creating a segment of national service companies catering to Arctic projects. The development of the Arctic should become a genuine national project by directly involving the industry, research centers and attendant production facilities from other Russian regions, including the Ural, Sibir,  Far East and others, rather than through more substantial federal funding. This can also be accomplished by comprehensively activating their competitive advantages inside regional added-value generating chains that encompass the whole of Russia. The development of the Northern Sea Route, the reinstatement of inter-regional transport and logistic routes as well as their development will play a key role in accomplishing this task,” according to a report called Russia’s Arctic Policy: International Aspects produced Anastasia Likhachyova, Ilya Stepanov, Dmitry Suslov, Igor Makarov, Vasily Kashin and Darya Boklan.

They believe that Russia is more interested in developing the Arctic than most other countries. The polar region accounts for 10 percent of this country’s GDP and 20 percent of its total exports. This can turn northern areas into a base for hi-tech centers catering to Arctic projects. Their transport support will make it easier to use the Northern Sea Route.

The report’s authors also underscore the need for retaining the region’s legal status. As ice formations continue to melt due to global warming, non-Arctic states are becoming more interested in the northern territories.

“A demand to abolish the current system for managing the Arctic by Arctic countries is being voiced more often,” the report’s authors note.

This challenge calls for expediting the development of the northern territories. To claim the right to control virtually ownerless stretches of water is one thing. But it is an entirely different matter to vie for intensive transport routes with a ramified coastal infrastructure.

According to Dmitry Fishkin, the project can only succeed if it involves various agencies, regions, and  if it acquires an international aspect. The expert singled out several key subjects during the national project’s elaboration:

-         the Arctic climate and permafrost;

-         the Arctic environment;

-         transport routes and the Northern Sea Route;

-         living space: cities and towns, rotation-shift workers and indigenous Northern ethnic groups;

-         new technologies for polar conditions;

-         development of the Arctic: geological prospecting and handling hard-to-extract resources;

-         self-contained power supply and small nuclear power plants.

Today, the Arctic claims the right to have a resource-intensive but innovative economy, with nature conservation organizations watching it closely. In turn, the state implements a socially oriented policy there.

Moreover, the Arctic agenda can bring together northern regions for the sake of thed common cause - developing the North. For this purpose, the authorities and residents of the polar territories should realize that the project aims to attract resources, rather than siphon them off from the regions.

Strategy for the development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation and ensuring national security for the period up to 2035, approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 26, 2020. The text of the document is posted on the official web resource of the President of the Russian Federation.

Publication: http://www.kremlin.ru/acts/bank/45972

The University of the Arctic (UArctic) is an international network of universities, colleges, research institutes and other organizations involved in education and science in the North. UArctic, following the motto "Strong North-by common efforts", supports residents of the circumpolar North, provides them with unique educational and research opportunities on the platform of a powerful partner network.

As part of the work of the expert council, a plenary meeting of the Youth Section of the VIII annual meeting of the International Expert Council for Cooperation in the Arctic (IECCA) was held in English. The plenary session was moderated by Dmitry Medvedev, Secretary of the International Expert Council on Arctic Cooperation, Candidate of Political Sciences and Hunter Tina Soliman, Professor at Macquarie Law School (Australia).

On November 12, 2020, the VIII annual meeting of The international expert Council for cooperation in the Arctic (IECCA) was held in an online format. The topic of the meeting: “Science, Education and Human Resources Development for Arctic Projects Implementation". Russian and foreign experts, representatives of business and government involved in the development of the Arctic made presentations at the plenary session. The main topics of the meeting were the specifics of training personnel for the Arctic and forms of international cooperation in this area.

Director of the Department of Expeditionary Activities and Tourism Development of the Executive Directorate of the Russian Geographical Society Sergey Chechulin announced at the annual conference "Day of the Arctic at the Presidential Library" about the plans of the Russian Geographical Society to organize three expeditions to explore the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in 2021.

Within the framework of the project, it is planned to study the hydrographic aspects and underwater objects discovered by researchers earlier in expeditions.

"This time they will be identified, 3D-underwater shooting of these objects so that everyone can get acquainted with these materials," - added the representative of the Russian Geographical Society. He noted that in the near future, scientists will also go on an expedition to Alexandra Land, an island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

It is also planned to carry out five types of scientific work, the main of which is the study of the polar bear population. The projects will be implemented jointly with the Northern Fleet and the Russian Arctic National Park.

Recall that the Novaya Zemlya archipelago is located in the Arctic Ocean between the Barents and Kara Seas. The Russian Arctic National Park is the northernmost and largest specially protected natural area in Russia. It includes the Franz Josef Land archipelago and the northern part of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.