The Arctic: Putin’s New Frontier?

The territorial ambitions of Russian President Vladimir Putin seem to have no limits. Another of his main objectives appears to be the colonisation of the Arctic and the North Pole, a project that has been ongoing for more than twenty years.

This area, which remains virtually unexploited, is one of the last El Dorados on the planet. The subsoil is full of oil, gas, rare earths and precious minerals like gold, uranium, copper. With global warming and the melting of the ocean’s ice, these riches are now more accessible, fueling the greed of major Western powers.

But in this conquest of the Arctic, Russia already has a head start. For years, the country has been equipped with gigantic nuclear-powered icebreakers: a means of controlling navigation in the icy waters surrounding the North Pole. Vladimir Putin has invested in extraordinary industrial projects such as an enormous gas processing plant anchored in the permafrost, and the construction of an incredible floating nuclear power plant intended to supply energy to Pevek, a small isolated port north of the polar circle. These are but a few examples of the flagship projects commanded by Russia’s leader, in this new conquering of the Arctic.

For Moscow, this policy also involves a militarisation of the region. Fearful of these expansionist ambitions, NATO decided to react by sending a strong message to the Russian President. The Atlantic Alliance recently gathered of an army of 35,000 men in Norway to show that it could repel a possible Russian invasion at any given time.