Vyacheslav Ruksha dies aged 72
A prominent figure in Arctic shipping, Vyacheslav Ruksha played a key role in opening the Murmansk region to international cooperation on nuclear safety in the 1990s.
Ruksha began his career as Director of the Murmansk Shipping Company during the 1990s, when the company was responsible for operating Russia’s fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers. He later moved to Moscow to serve as Deputy Minister of Transport.
In 2008, he returned to Murmansk to take up the position of Director of Atomflot.
He was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Murmansk in 2016.
In 2018, Ruksha was appointed Director of the Northern Sea Route Directorate, which operates under Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation.
He was widely recognised for his central role in nuclear safety projects in the Murmansk region, carried out with financial and technical support from the EU, the United States and Norway in the years following the end of the Cold War.
Over the years, millions of euros in Western aid aimed at securing radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in Russia were coordinated under his leadership.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, all nuclear safety cooperation with Western partners came to an end.
In 2025, Ruksha was placed on the United States sanctions list for his involvement in Rosatom’s development of weapons systems, including those used in the war against Ukraine.
