Russia prepares for ice-cold war with show of military force in the Arctic

Vladimir Putin sends troops and jets to oil- and gas-rich region also coveted by Canada, United States, Norway and Denmark

Pristine wilderness … Russia is determined to make its presence felt in the Arctic. Photograph: Neale Clark/Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis

Yaya is a very small Arctic island, barely one metre above sea level and covering only 500 square metres. Russian pilots discovered it at the beginning of October. With the Admiral Vladimirsky research ship having confirmed its presence in the Laptev Sea, Yaya will soon be added to the map of the Arctic Ocean and will become part of Russian territory, the RIA Novosti state news agency announced. In its determination to defend its interests in this icy waste, Russia is no longer content to leave its mark, as it did in 2007 when it planted a Russian flag, in a titanium capsule, 4,200 metres below the north pole. Now it is engaging in large-scale militarisation of the Arctic, a vast area coveted by itself and its four neighbours: Canada, the United States, Norway and Denmark.
RIA Novosti says that former Soviet bases are being reactivated in response to renewed Nato interest in the region. According to the Russian authorities, the airstrip on Novaya Zemlya can now accommodate fighters and part of the North Fleet is establishing quarters there. A new military group will be formed in the far north consisting of two brigades, totalling 6,000 soldiers, deployed in the Murmansk area and then the Yamal-Nenets autonomous region. Radar and ground guidance systems are also planned for Franz Josef Land (part of Novaya Zemlya), Wrangel Island and at Cape Schmidt. The federal security service plans to increase the number of border guards on Russia’s northern perimeter.
During the recent Vostok 2014 full-scale military exercises – the biggest since the end of the Soviet Union – Russian troops carried out combat missions in the Arctic, using the Pantsir-S and Iskander-M weapon systems. Such moves may bring back the atmosphere of the cold war, when the region was the focus of US and Nato attention, as they were convinced that it would be a launchpad for nuclear strikes.
“In those days of acute paranoia, when it seemed vital to keep track of enemy submarines and protect your own, this maybe made sense. But the current military buildup is pointless,” says Alexander Golts, military analyst and deputy editor of the Yezhenedelny Zhurnal (Weekly Journal), a news site that was censored hours after Crimea was annexed. “It is consistent with the stance of the Russian state, which only understands the word ‘force’ in military terms,” he adds. “But you must keep it in proportion; it is still only a symbolic battle. Take a look at the map and you will soon see that 6,000 men spread over such a huge area is not much.”
“It makes no sense,” says Vladimir Chuprov at Greenpeace Russia. “The only justification can be the will, yet again, to unite the Russian people in the face of an enemy on the outside who is supposedly trying to take ‘our’ Arctic, despite there being no threat. It’s a drill ground on which Russia can flex its muscles, and more a matter of world politics than economics.”

The Arctic region. Illustration: Guardian Imaging

The Arctic’s hydrocarbon resources nevertheless exert a powerful pull. It has been compared to “a second Middle East”, with oil and gas reserves thought to represent 17% and 30%, respectively, of the global total. But the extreme climatic conditions and recent international sanctions against Russia have put many projects on hold. At present Russia is extracting no more than 6.6m tonnes of oil a year in this area, compared with “4.5m tonnes lost in the whole country due to leaking pipelines”, according to Greenpeace.
And then there is the North-east Passage, a sea lane between Asia and the US, which will ultimately open as the ice melts, providing an alternative to the Suez canal. But here again there is considerable uncertainty, due to the exorbitant cost of using nuclear ice-breakers to keep it open. Russia owns four of these ships. But “one of them costs $120,000 a day to operate”, Chuprov says. He is also concerned about the environmental impact of a military buildup in the Arctic. “During the recent military exercises the missiles were launched on Wrangel Island, with no observers, in an area which is a breeding ground for polar bears and walruses.”
On 11 October, in an attempt to forestall such criticism, the Russian defence ministry announced plans to build “a regional environmental centre [...] to prevent pollution in areas where Russian forces are deployed”. Russian troops systematically receive “training and briefings on environmental safety and compliance with legislation”, deputy minister Dmitry Bulgakov added. But it will take more than this to reassure the western powers.
The Arctic, which is governed by international maritime law, is also the focus of other disputes. Canada regularly carries out military exercises in its Arctic territory. Relations between Ottawa and Moscow have cooled significantly since the start of the Ukraine crisis.
This article appeared in Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from Le Monde