At a Jan. 23 meeting with students of Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized the importance of Arctic development, TASS reported. “Experts differ on how the climate situation will change on the planet and in the Arctic further down the road—and on whether we are actually facing global warming or, as some believe, the warming peak is now behind us and cooling will follow next,” Putin said. “What is important is that we will continue the [Arctic] exploration anyway. Northern latitudes account for 70% of the Russian territory. This is a very important thing,” he emphasized.