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.
Russia has started repairs of the world’s only nuclear-powered container vessel «Sevmorput». It will be used in both commercial and military operations in the Russian Arctic.
Russia’s grand-scaled environmental clean-up of Arctic territories will continue also in 2014. From the island of Bely, 365 tons of garbage has been removed by volunteers this summer.
ROVANIEMI: Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen will strengthen Arctic Council by organizing a Summit between state leaders and move the Council towards becoming a treaty-based organization.
ROVANIEMI: Finland’s Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen says it must be a priority to find out to which port, Norwegian or Russian, a possible railway from Lapland could be built. If profitable.
The 2013 navigation season on the Northern Sea Route (NSR) has come to an end. Although the number of vessels taking the Arctic shortcut between Europe and Asia has soared, cargo amounts remain nearly on last year’s level.
Canada is soon expected to apply to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf for exclusive rights to 1.7 million square kilometers of Arctic sea floor. Denmark and Greenland submitted their claim last week.
Russian research institute designs ice-classed cargo vessel for transport of spent nuclear fuel and reactors in the Arctic. Nuclear expert is worried it could be used to import nuclear waste.
