Languages

- Diplomacy with a steel fist needed in the Arctic

"Severodvinsk" was the first of eight Yasen (NATO name Graney) submarines to be launched. (Photo: Kremlin.ru)

Diplomats representing Russian interests in the Arctic need to have a military potential behind their backs, the editor of Russia’s biggest military magazine says.

Location

- Of course such questions should be resolved through diplomatic methods, but the diplomacy has to be, as Rogozin put it, as “a steel fist in a kid glove”, which we will shake our partners’ hand with, says Igor Korotchenko, Chief Director of the magazine “National Defense” (Natsional’naya Oborona).

It was at a meeting in February last year that Rogozin said the words Korotchenko is referring to: “We have four allies: the Army, the Navy, the defense sector and Vladimir Putin. Our policy must be a steel fist in a kid glove. It is bound to transform foes into partners, partners into neutrals and allies into friends”, he said at the founding congress of the Russian People’s Front Voluntary Movement in Support of the Armed Forces and the Defense Sector.

In order to develop the military potential in the Arctic, Russia needs to put into service eight multipurpose-submarines of the Yasen-class and employ so-called Arctic brigades. “Our strategic air force is already conducting planned patrolling, including in the Arctic, in order to represent Russian interests”, Igor Korotchenko explained at a round board discussion arranged by RIA Novosti.