Alexander Stubb, famous in the Barents Region for branding the north as the world´s most sexy region, is put on track to take over after Jyrki Katainen.
Oslo asks Moscow for an explanation after BarentsObserver earlier today reported that Russia’s sanctioned Deputy Prime Minister suddenly appeared on Svalbard.
Conservative leader Erna Solberg forms a minority government with the Progress party with parliament backing from the Liberals and Christian Democrats based on an agreement not to open for controversial Arctic oil drilling.
Most of the officials in the Russian presidential administration will remain in their posts under new president Dmitrii Medvedev. The few new faces in the administration either come from Gazprom or from the former government.
The Danish government has invited government ministers from Canada, Norway, Russia and the United States to discussions about borders and resources in the Arctic. The meeting takes place as the North Pole ice is melting at record speed and as commercial interests in transport and industry in the region increases.
President Dmitry Medvedev accepted an invitation from his Finnish counterpart Tarja Halonen to visit Finland, but could not promise to drop the new export tariffs on timber.
“The ongoing fighting in Georgia has an extent with is without precedence in Europe since the Balkan wars”, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre says in a press release. Together with his colleague from Finland and Sweden, Mr. Støre now calls on all parties to end the fighting.
Prosecutors in Murmansk say city mayor Mikhail Savchenko has failed to turn on heating in the city although temperatures have dropped below the border of eight degrees centigrade. That might have serious consequenses for the elected city leader.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre maintains that Russia is not a threat to Norway. He is backed by Russia’s Ambassador to the country, Sergey Andreev, who underlines that the circumstances of the Georgia conflict “must not mechanically be applied to other neighbouring states”.
Regional authorities in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug have rejected a newly elaborated development strategy for the region. The administration argues that the document focuses too much on oil production, and that it downplays the region’s potential within industrial processing, tourism, transport infrastructure and agriculture.
The High North was on top of the agenda when a delegation of six Norwegian cabinet ministers, headed by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, yesterday met with all the leading institutions of the EU. “Europe is about to discover the richness of the Arctic regions. This area is constantly moving towards greater cooperation”, Stoltenberg said.
The Murmansk regional Duma is on Wednesday expected to approve Dmitry Dmitriyenko as the region’s new governor. The inauguration ceremony will take place that same day.
