The Associated Press contributes to the fear mongering on Russian activities in the Arctic with a report on the expanded Russian military activities at the Nagurskoye air base on the Franz Joseph Land archipelago. The base has been upgraded with missile batteries and radar and a lengthened runway that can handle everything up to the largest aircraft, including nuclear-capable bombers, “projecting Moscow’s power and influence across the Arctic amid intensifying international competition for the region’s vast resources.” The base sits 600 miles south of the geographic North Pole and “was built using new construction technologies as part of Kremlin efforts to bolster the military amid spiraling tensions with the West following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.”
A major driver of Russian activities in the north is the Northern Sea Route. “Practically the entire Northern Sea Route goes through Russia’s territorial waters or the country’s economic zone,” Russian Northern Fleet commander Adm. Alexander Moiseyev told reporters last week aboard the Peter the Great missile cruiser. “The complex ice conditions make it necessary to organize safe shipping, so Russia insists on a special regime of its use.”