In advance of Russia’s assumption of the two-year rotating chairmanship of the Arctic Council in May, Moscow is calling on the United Nations to approve its claims to even more of the Arctic seabed, including territories also claimed by Denmark and Canada. Furthermore, President Vladimir Putin is pushing for the development of infrastructure along Russia’s Arctic littoral to better position the country to exploit these areas if the UN recognizes Moscow’s right to them, or possibly to use its own forces to unilaterally lay claim to them. It remains uncertain whether the UN will grant Russia’s latest request – it has not accepted Moscow’s repeated claims over the last two decades. And it is doubtful that Moscow will be able to meet the increasingly ambitious Artic development plans that Putin outlined in his address, on April 21, to the Russian parliament. Instead, Russia’s claims at the UN are likely to be resisted by the other Arctic powers, with the first flashpoint possible as soon as next month, at an Arctic Council ministerial in Reykjavik, where both the United States secretary of state and the Russian foreign minister will be present. At the same time, many in the Russian government are, at best, lukewarm about the Kremlin’s plans; and that half-heartedness—along with the enormous price tag and the threat of environmental disaster—may block the grand initiative from moving forward.
OP-ED
Paul Goble: Moscow pushing even more expansive claims on Arctic
Sea ice is seen from NASA's Operation IceBridge research aircraft off the northwest coast on March 30, 2017 above Greenland.
