Login

 

Forgot password?
submarines shipbuilding Black Sea Fleet exercise Pacific Fleet Russian Navy Northern Fleet strategy cooperation Ukraine visits Russia piracy missiles trials Sevastopol history Sevmash presence contracts drills Baltic Fleet industry incident anti-piracy shipyards Gulf of Aden frigate training Somalia India developments reforms opinion Borei procurements policy Russia - India aircraft carrier Crimea arms exports USA St. Petersburg France financing tests Bulava Yury Dolgoruky Serdiukov US Navy Mediterranean cruise Zvezdochka NATO innovations Indian Navy United Shipbuilding Corporation Medvedev Arctic agreements commission Admiralteyskie Verfi Admiral Gorshkov Vladivostok Mistral accident hijacking corvettes overhaul anniversary Russia - France Admiral Kuznetsov Vysotsky Rosoboronexport event ceremony Yantar Severomorsk negotiations defense order conflict aircraft China deployment naval aviation Black Sea investigations Putin Varyag coast guard Novorossiysk Vikramaditya landing craft marines crime Far East meeting Severnaya Verf scandals memorials Syria traditions escort statistics South Korea Japan Yasen Neustrashimy tenders convoys Marshal Shaposhnikov Admiral Chabanenko Ukrainian Navy Chirkov problems Severodvinsk reinforcement tension technology tragedy firings search and rescue Caspian Flotilla upgrade hostages provocation Baltic Sea Almaz Moskva frontier service court Turkey Dmitry Donskoy keel laying rumors Kilo class shipwreck World War II Petr Veliky Kaliningrad death Admiral Panteleyev Atalanta helicopters Norway Rubin Admiral Vinogradov patrols Russia-Norway delivery
Search
Our friends russian navy weapons world sailing ships
 
Tell a friend Print version

Russia commences Arctic naval patrols

Russia commences Arctic naval patrols 19.09.2013
Text: New Scientist
Photo: tvzvezda.ru
Climate change is bad news for most of us, but it is helping Russia boost its status as a naval power.

Last week a flotilla of Russian navy vessels completed a voyage across the Arctic Ocean. The Russian Ministry of Defence has since announced that this was the first of what will be regular patrols of newly accessible shipping lanes.

The lanes are now open during the summer owing to receding sea ice, and provide a maritime shortcut between northern Asia and western Europe. Given the risk of smuggling along its lengthy Arctic coast, it is natural for Russia to want to bolster its naval presence here, says Michael Byers a specialist in international law at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Despite suspicions about Russia's motives after a 2007 stunt in which a Russian submarine planted the country's flag on the seabed at the North Pole, Byers does not see the naval patrols as a harbinger of rising tensions over the Arctic's abundant oil, gas and other resources.

Rather, he suggests the Russian navy simply wants to make more use of Arctic ports after losing its Baltic bases when the Soviet Union broke up. "From a Russian military perspective, the Arctic is not just about access to the Arctic Ocean, but to the world's oceans," Byers says.

Back to the list





Back to news list