Russia’s Arctic policy up for remake

[Panich52]

Alaska Dispatch
Russia’s Arctic policy up for remake
  
Russia will revise its Arctic activities, but the country is not seeking to militarize the region, controversial leader of the new Arctic Commission promises.


As Russia is unfolding a major combat alert drill in its Northern Fleet, the country’s government has approved the setup of a new federal Arctic Commission. Headed by hard-line Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, the Commission will coordinate all government authorities involved in regional developments.

Included in the commission mandate are issues of social, economic, political, as well as military, importance, newspaper Kommersant reports.

In a first commission meeting, Rogozin and his commission members decided to “conduct a revision of everything which Russia has in the Arctic,” the newspaper writes.

Rogozin will have five commission deputies at his disposal: Minister of Natural Resources Sergey Donskoy, Minister of Energy Aleksandr Novak, Minister of Economic Development Aleksey Ulyukaev, Minister of Transport Maksim Sokolov and Deputy Secretary of the national Security Council Vladimir Nazarov. Sixty people will be included in the new structure, among them representatives of the oil and gas industry, the ministry of Defense, the FSB, the Presidential Administration and regional governors.

Commenting on the mandate of the commission at his Facebook page, Rogozin underlines that “our objective is not the militarization of the Arctic, [but rather] a full-fledged realization of Russia’s economic interests in the Arctic, as well as attention to the vulnerable environment and the protection and development of indigenous peoples’ cultures”.
 

Arctic | Atle Staalesen, Barents Observer
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http://www.adn.com/article/20150318/russia-s-arctic-policy-remake

[pampango]

1. "... a full-fledged realization of Russia’s economic interests in the Arctic" = lots of drilling and

mining? And a "major combat alert drill" to protect those 'economic interests". If this were happening in the US or Canada I know how I would feel about it.