Swedish journalist Anna-Lena Lauren described Russia's plans for the Arctic with a phrase from the children's cartoon Masha and the Bear. She wrote her opinion in a column for Dagens Nyheter.
Lauren described a series in which the cartoon characters were instructed to hand out New Year's gifts, but Masha did not want to do this, lay down on a mountain of boxes and said: “I will not give it!” After describing the scene, the journalist noted: “Briefly about the attitude of the Russian government to the Arctic.”
According to Lauren, Russia already owns about half of the Arctic and the Kremlin wants to gain control over the new islands and waters that appear as the ice melts.
“When a Russian research expedition theatrically planted a titanium flag at the bottom of the North Pole in 2007, it was partly a spectacle to its audience, but also a signal to the outside world. In the same year, Russia submitted an application to the UN to expand its territorial waters to the North Pole, ”she wrote, adding that in 2015 Russia filed a new application claiming that the continental shelf of Siberia extends further. The journalist also pointed out that Russia is modernizing military bases in the Arctic, investing large resources in the production of materials that are resistant to extreme cold.
According to Lauren, Russia also intends to fully control the Northern Sea Route. “In this area, Russia has no competition – it is the only country in the world that has a nuclear icebreaker fleet,” the journalist wrote.
As Lauren noted, some Russian experts warn that the route will become economically profitable only after a long time, others that climate change will lead to large expenses and income will be insignificant. She concluded by saying that “for the Kremlin, there is only one thing that matters: to get every new part of the Arctic it can get to.”
