Greenpeace’s vessel «Arctic Sunrise» has been released after nearly nine months of detention in Murmansk, following the organization’s demonstration against Arctic drilling in the Pechora Sea last fall.
The Finnish Cabinet Committee on EU Affairs has adopted the proposal for Finland’s Arctic Strategy with focus on issues relating to security, the environment, economy, infrastructure and the indigenous peoples in the Arctic.
The British Foreign Office cautions that search- and rescue capabilities may be less than would be needed to cope with even one of the small cruise ships that frequent parts of the Arctic, like here on Svalbard.
Russia plans to spend $70 million on environmental clean-up of Arctic territories in the coming three years. The first large expedition is ready to sail from Arkhangelsk to Franz Josefs Land.
Activists dressed in polar bear costumes blocked the driveway outside Gazprom skyscraper in Moscow. Greenpeace calls upon Gazprom to stop its offshore oil drilling in the Barents Sea.
The 2012 navigation season on the Northern Sea Route is coming to an end. Never before have so many vessels taken the Arctic shortcut between Europe and Asia, and never before has so much cargo been transported along the route.
Climate change forces Russia to stop using natural ice floes for Arctic research stations. The Government allocates 1,7 billion rubles to construction of a special ice-strengthened platform for future stations.
In spite of higher risk connected to diminishing ice in the Arctic, Russia still plans to continue placing scientists on drifting ice floes in the Arctic.
China plans to establish a China-Nordic Arctic Research Center in Shanghai in partnership with a number of research institutes in the Nordic countries.
Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization Koji Sekimizu departs on a 5-day Arctic sea voyage with a Russian nuclear icebreaker as part of a fact-finding mission to the region.
