Intelligence brief says repression undermines Russia’s Arctic position
Authorities’ repression of scientists is isolating Russia from international scientific cooperation and weakening the country’s position in the Arctic, according to a brief by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
While the Arctic Council maintains an open-door policy allowing Russian researchers to exchange environmental data, Russian authorities themselves are waging a campaign against scientists who participate in such cooperation, the briefing states.
The Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine (SZRU) says that the Kremlin’s growing aggressiveness towards any sources of information about the Russian Arctic indicates Moscow’s unwillingness to reveal the real state of affairs in the region. Repression against scientists and the media is becoming a tool for concealing the consequences of Russia’s economic activities in the Arctic.
On January 14, security officials arrested Aleksei Dudarev, a contributor to the work of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). The programme’s circumpolar Arctic research reports have been published since the early 1990s and have consistently included significant input from Russian researchers.
Dudarev has been accused of state treason and could face life imprisonment. According to the briefing, the arrest reflects a broader pattern of silencing Russian researchers involved in international collaboration. Detaining one scientist can have a chilling effect on others who share data with foreign colleagues.
The St Petersburg-based scientist studied the impact of toxic pollutants in the Arctic on the health of people living in the High North, including Indigenous communities on the Nenets tundra in Russia’s north-western regions.
Data of this kind, even when gathered from open sources, is now considered sensitive by Russia’s domestic security service, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB).
According to the FSB, Dudarev’s data could potentially be used by hostile actors. The agency argued that Norway’s intelligence service might make use of such scientific findings.
The Ukrainian intelligence briefing says that repression against Russia’s own researchers ultimately undermines the country’s standing in the Arctic.
The FSB is also reported to be putting pressure on teachers and scientists at Northern (Arctic) Federal University in Arkhangelsk.
Meanwhile, the non-profit organisation Arctida, which specialises in Arctic research, has recently been declared “undesirable”.
At the same time, the SZRU notes that Russian authorities are increasing pressure on the Barents Observer over its journalistic coverage of Arctic issues.
