Russia to boost its presence in Arctic
All the leaders of Russia’s power ministries last Friday met at the far northern Franz Josef Land for an unprecedented meeting in the National Security Council. -The Arctic must become Russia’s main strategic resource base, council secretary Nikolay Patrushev said after the meeting.
There is a growing interest in the Arctic from a number of countries, and the competition between Arctic countries and trans-national corporations over access to Arctic energy resources is on the increase, the meeting participants said, a press release from the Security Council reads.
The Security Council members also highlighted the increasingly important role of the Russian Arctic zone.
-With the time, this must become our most important strategic resource base, Mr. Patrushev underlined.
The Franz Josef meeting was unprecedented – never before has the whole national power elite assembled this far north. The meeting included Director of the FSB Aleksandr Bortnikov, Defence Minister Anatolii Serdyukov, Minister of Interior Rashid Nurgaliev, Head of the Presidential Administration Sergey Naryshkin, Minister of Regional Development Dmitrii Kozak, Minister of Transport Igor Levitin, Speaker in the Federation Council Sergey Mironov and Speaker in the State Duma Boris Gryzlov, a press release from the Security Council reads.
The Franz Josef Land is a Russian archipelago located at latitudes between 80.0° and 81.9° north. The archipelago consists of 191 ice-covered islands with an area of 16,134 km² and is largely uninhabited. The archipelago is only 900 to 1110 km from the North Pole, closer than all land masses except for Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Greenland.
