Addressing PM Dmitry Medvedev, Kovtun underlines that the territories located north of latitude 66° 33′ must be included in federal Arctic legislation. The address comes as a new bill on Russian Arctic territories proposes to significantly limit the extension of the areas, which today are defined as “Arctic”.
“We find it imperative to use as main criteria the federal subjects’ and municipalities’ localization north of the Arctic Circle”, Kovtun says in the letter. She also argues that Russia is committed by international norms and agreements to such a definition, a press release reads.
Almost all of Murmansk Oblast is located north of the Arctic Circle.
As previously reported, the draft law defines as “Arctic” only the areas with direct access to the Arctic coast. That would consequently mean that major areas of the Murmansk inland, like Polyarnye Zori, Kovdor, Kirovsk, Apatity, Monchegorsk and Olenegorsk will no longer be “Arctic”.
Commenting on the new legislation, Murmansk senator Igor Chernishenko says that the Moscow specialists who have developed the model for the new Russian Arctic zone, “have not taken our proposals into account, and instead chosen the voluntaristic path: all coastal areas will be Arctic, while the areas located 20-50 km inland will not be”.
Status as “Arctic territory” includes favourable taxation and investments, as well as beneficial social and economic conditions for the local population.
In any case, the new law on Arctic territories will significantly redefine the extension of the Russian Arctic. Both Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Republic of Karelia will almost entirely lose their Arctic status.
