Friday, October 04, 2013

Who owns the North Pole part 65

The Russian military has been restoring a Soviet-era military base on the New Siberian Islands that was shut down after the Soviet collapse. He added that the facility is key for protecting shipping routes that link Europe with the Pacific region across the Arctic Ocean.

Last month, a Russian navy squadron led by the flagship of Russia’s Northern Fleet, nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great, visited the archipelago, which occupies a strategic position on the Arctic shipping route. Putin said that the military has already re-established a permanent garrison there and will restore an airfield and other facilities.

Putin said the Arctic region is essential for Russia’s economic and security interests. He dismissed suggestions that the Arctic should be placed under the jurisdiction of the international community. “The Arctic is an unalienable part of the Russian Federation that has been under our sovereignty for a few centuries,” Putin said. “And it will be so for the time to come.”

In a signal that it won’t tolerate any attempts to put obstacles in the way of its plans to tap into Arctic resources, Russia has filed piracy charges against the 30-member crew of a Greenpeace ship who protested at a Russian oil platform in the Arctic.



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