Russia
(News24, 28 August 2010) -- Moscow - Eleven Russian sailors have drowned in the Arctic after going to the rescue of a fishing boat that got into distress, the Moscow daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported on Saturday. The Alexey Kulakowski sank in the early hours of Friday as part of a rescue mission in the Laptev Sea, around 35km outside the port of Tiksi. However, the captain of the ship, and two engineers, were rescued from the sinking vessel. According to some reports, there were only two life-jackets onboard for the 14 crew members.
Posted 28 August 2010; 11:21:52 PM. Permalink
Tagged: August 2010, Circumpolar News, Fisheries, Northwest Russia, People, Russia
M/V Nordic Barents to make historic voyage
(Barents Observer, 26 August 2010) - For the first time ever, a bulk carrier with non—Russian flag is using the Northern Sea Route as a transit trade lane, when transporting iron ore from the Northern Norway to China via Arctic and Russian waters. The historic transit is about one third shorter than traditional shipping routes. A strong Nordic–Russian partnership is behind this business adventure. The international shipping industry will witness the historic event, when the vessel departs from the port of Kirkenes in Northern Norway within the next few weeks. BarentsObserver could already in July report about the planned shipping of iron ore concentrate from Kirkenes to China via the Arctic, and today it is confirmed that the deal on shipping will actually take place. Russian authorities, the Northern Sea Route Administration under the Ministry of Transportation and Rosatomflot, the operator of the Russian national icebreaking fleet, have given the project their first-ever approval for a foreign flagged vessel to ship a cargo in transit from a foreign port to a foreign port through Russian waters. One of the world’s few modern heavy ice-class bulk carriers — M/V Nordic Barents — will carry the 41,000 tons load from the port near the Norwegian mine in Kirkenes around the top of the world to Asia. M/V Nordic Barents is an ice-class 1a ship. This is the highest conventional ice-class, and the partners in the project confirm to BarentsObserver that it was the only ship classification that the Russian authorities would allow for this transit. Russian icebreakers operated by Rosatomflot will escort M/V Nordic Barents on its journey along the Northern Sea Route, in Europe also known as the North East Passage. The trip across the Arctic is a challenging task that requires great experience and navigational skills. In cooperation with the Russians, the expedition will help build critical expertise and experience in navigating these demanding waters. Never before has a non—Russian bulk carrier sail all along this route.
Posted 27 August 2010; 11:10:45 PM. Permalink
Tagged: August 2010, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Elk Island wood bison big hit in Russia
(Hanneke Brooymans/edmontonjournal.com, 5 August 2010) --EDMONTON - Elk Island National Park will send a second shipment of bison to Russia this year as part of a conservation project. Thirty wood bison will be sent in December to the Republic of Sakha, also known as Yakutia, where biologists are attempting to re-establish a population. The republic's rugged and largely forested landscape already holds moose, caribou and elk. But the steppe bison that used to roam that area died out about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. Canada's wood bison are the closest living relatives of the steppe bison, and the Russians asked the Wood Bison Recovery Team at Elk Island in 1997 for their help. Elk Island staff were keen to participate, partly because a geographically separate population acts as a safeguard to protect the species as a whole. They agreed to donate 15 males and 15 females, but the Russians had to pay for transportation. A Sakha diamond company called Alrosa stepped forward with the necessary cash in 2006. Elk Island will also donate this year's batch of 15 males and 15 females, said Archie Handel, a resource conservation and public safety specialist with the park. The first herd seems to have done fairly well. All but three of the original 30 are alive. Last year, the cows gave birth to 10 calves, Handel said. There is no word on how many calves were born this year or in previous years.
Posted 21 August 2010; 8:41:12 PM. Permalink
Tagged: August 2010, Canada, Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, Far East Russia, International, Russia
Seven people killed in road accident in Russian Far East
(RIA Novosti, 1 August 2010) -- Khabarovsk - Seven people were killed and another eight injured after two minivans collided on a highway in the Magadan Region in the Russian Far East, the regional emergencies center said on Sunday. The road accident occurred on the 297th km (185th mile) of the Kolyma highway on Sunday afternoon. The persons injured in the accident have been hospitalized, the emergencies center said. Police are investigating the causes of the accident, the emergencies center said. According to statistics, 30,000 people lose their lives in traffic accidents every year in Russia due to the poor state of highway networks and reckless driving.
Posted 1 August 2010; 10:32:30 AM. Permalink
Tagged: August 2010, Circumpolar News, Communities, Disasters, etc., Far East Russia, Russia
Russia approves strategy for polar bear preservation - ministry
(RIA Novosti, 6 July 2010) -- Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Yury Trutnev has approved a strategy for polar bear preservation in Russia, according to a statement published on Tuesday. The ministry's statement said the strategy aims to determine the mechanisms of preserving animal populations in the Russian Arctic and reduce the negative impact of human activity in their habitats. "The strategy is consistent with a five-party agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears [achieved] in 1973 signed in Oslo (Norway) and an agreement between the Russian and the U.S. governments on the preservation and utilization of the Alaska-Chukotka polar bear population, concluded in Washington in 2000," the statement said. "It is also intended to ensure adequate populations of this unique animal in the changing climate in the Arctic and control the growth of human impacts on the marine and coastal ecosystems of the northern circumpolar basin," it continued. There are from 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in the wild, including up to 7,000 in Russia.
Posted 21 July 2010; 10:33:10 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, July 2010, Russia
Oil tankers through North East Passage
(BarentsObserver, 14 July 2010) -- The two Murmansk registered oil tankers Varzuga and Indiga are right now on their way through the partly ice-covered Northern Sea Route on their way to Chukotka in Russia’s Far East. The Arctic shipping season 2010 is closely followed by the world’s shipping interests as global warming makes the sea ice retreat in record speed. By sailing the Northern Sea route, the ship-owners save both time and fuel-costs as the distance from Europe to Asia via the north is much shorter than traditionally routes through the Suez or Panama canals, or around Africa to Asia. The two oil tankers that left Murmansk this week are accompanied by an icebreaker, reports MBNews. The tankers hold the ice-classification 1A Super with double hull according to the web-portal of Murmansk Shipping Company. The tankers are loaded with 27,000 tons of petroleum. They are scheduled to arrive in the port-town of Pevek on Chukotka in Russia’s Far East on July 27th. Although Varzuga and Indiga are the first tankers to sail the North East Passage this summer, they are not the only. Russia’s biggest shipping company, Sovkomflot, intends to carry out a first major oil shipment from the Varandey terminal on the coast of the Pechora Sea through the North East Passage to Japan later this summer. Sovcomflot will send one of its purpose-built 70.000 dwt ice-classed shuttle tankers on the route. If successful, the tanker will be the first ever oil tanker to sail the entire Northern Sea Route from Northwest Russia to Asia.
Posted 15 July 2010; 12:17:34 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, July 2010, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Nenets studying indigenous media in Canada
(Barents Indigenous Peoples, 30 June 2010) -- Yasavey, in cooperation with Norway and Canada, is looking into the possibility of establishing a Nenets radio station in Nenets Autonomous Okrug, North-West Russia, aiming at bringing Nenets language, culture and news to the Nenets, inhabiting the large tundra areas. The indigenous peoples in Canada know how to do this, and have shared their knowledge and experiences with the Nenets during a one-week study trip in Ontario, Canada. In June, Yasavey (the Public Association of Nenets People in NAO) visited several media enterprises and culture organizations and institutions in Toronto, Brantford, Six Nations and Ottawa, Ontario. Lewis Cardinal, who is the Vice-President of Aboriginal Voices Radio Network, has been involved in the project since the beginning, and he hosted the Nenets delegation together with Metis Elder, Wil Campbell, who has long experience from indigenous media work, in particular film making. The study tour was financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the project is a result of the Dialogue on the High North between Norway and Canada. In autumn 2009, the two states decided that this pre-project was to be implemented, and the Norwegian Barents Secretariat is currently responsible for carrying out the activities. This study tour will be followed up by a seminar on the establishment of a radio station, and the establishment itself will constitute the main project. Yasavey will host the seminar in Naryan-Mar in March/April 2011, in cooperation with the Nenets Autonomous Okrug Regional Administration, as well as with the Norwegian and Canadian partners. Development of the Nenets language and culture is the core of the project, as Nenets, like several other indigenous languages, are threatened by extinction. Currently, the regional radio station broadcasts in Nenets a few minutes every week, but the signals from this radio station does not reach beyond the city boundary of Naryan-Mar. Approximately 8,000 Nenets inhabit the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, whereas only 746 Nenets live in the city of Naryan-Mar, according to Yasavey.
Posted 12 July 2010; 9:14:26 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Education and Civil Society, Indigenous Issues, June10, Language, Northwest Russia, Russia
Enhancing the king crab stock is "voodoo and sabotage"
(Barents Observer, 9 July 2010) -- Russian scientists have released some 200,000 king crab brood off the coast of the Kola Peninsula. "It can only be described as voodoo and sabotage," says Igor Pakholkov, deputy director of a Murmansk based fishing company. The release of near 200,000 small King Crabs happend earlier this summer from the marine research station at Dalniye Zelentsy east of Murmansk on the coast of the Kola Peninsula. It is the first time Russia release artificially reared king crab brood in such great numbers. The red king crab (or Kamchatka crab) was first introduced to the Barents Sea from Russia’s Far East in the 60-ties. The initiative of scientific institutions to enhance the population of red king crab in the waters of the Barents Sea can only be described as voodoo and sabotage, says Igor Pakholkov in an interview with Regnum. Pakholkov is deputy director and fleet manager of Murmansk fishing company Zolotaya Rybka. The company is a member of the coastal fishery association and focused on coastal Kamchatka crab hunting. The king crab has no natural enemies in the Barents Sea and the stock has increased rapidly since the late 80-ties. In the early 90-ties the king crab started to appear in the fjords of Eastern Finnmark in Norway. Since then, the population has grown immensely. Some estimates say there are more than 20 million in the Barents Sea. Many environmentalists and scientists say the species negatively alters the sea’s natural biodiversity. The consequence of the king crab explosion may be that native species disappear. Igor Pakholkov says the king crab is not a natural inhabitant of the northern seas, and they violate the natural balance in the marine ecosystem. They destroy the traditional fish species, he says. "There is only one way to deal with the king crab, that is, allowing free fishing," Pakholov says in the interview with Regnum.
Posted 11 July 2010; 11:29:20 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, Environment and Landscape, July 2010, Northwest Russia, Norway, Russia
Russia’s Arctic expedition heads for Murmansk
(Itar-Tass, 6 June 2010) -- THE ICEBREAKER ROSSIA - Russia’s High-Latitude Arctic expedition is heading for the northern port of Murmansk. Russian polar explorers, members of the “High-Latitude Arctic-2010” expedition and the crew of the icebreaker Rossia officially closed the North Pole–37 drifting station in the Arctic on Saturday. “Over the past nine months fifteen polar explorers represented the interests of Russia and the whole mankind in the extremely harsh conditions of the Arctic,” Vladimir Sokolov, the head of the high-latitude expedition, said. “The scientists who worked on the North Pole–37 Arctic station have done a huge amount of work vital for the development of science and the exploration of the Arctic. The research they carried out is particularly important in conditions of changing climate,” Sokolov went on to say.
Posted 7 June 2010; 1:14:41 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Expeditions, field trips, tours, June10, Northwest Russia, Research, Russia
Eurasia highest volcano erupts in Russia's Far East
(RIA Novosti, 7 June 2010) -- PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY - Eurasia's highest volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East has shown again signs of intensified activity throwing clouds of smoke and ash into the air to a height of 2.5 kilometers. The Klyuchevskoy, which lies 220 miles north of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, is one of the largest active volcanoes in the world and reaches an altitude of 15,584 feet. It erupts about every 2-3 years. Local seismologists said on Monday there was no immediate threat to the residents or tourists in the area, but issued an ash emission warning for air traffic in the vicinity of the volcano. The Klyuchevskoy started a new active cycle with an eruption in August 2009. There are more than 150 volcanoes on Kamchatka, 29 of them active. Another volcano in the area, the Bezymyanny, erupted on May 31, sending clouds of ash to the height of 10 kilometers for about 20 minutes.
Posted 7 June 2010; 1:05:16 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Environment and Landscape, Far East Russia, June10, Russia
Indigenous people of Russia battered by hardships
(Jane George/Nunatsiaq News, 20 May 2010) -- QUEBEC CITY - Many of the 280,000 indigenous peoples of Russia’s north are watching their communities and cultures teeter on the brink of extinction as economic hardships force them to leave their homelands and migrate in droves to the city. Many of those who remain behind have abandoned traditional values and become “profit-driven in their search for compensation for their traditional lands,” Larissa Abryutina of the Russian Association of the Indigenous People of the North said May 18 in a presentation to a conference at Laval University on sustainable development and sovereignty in the Arctic. Like other speakers, Abryutina revealed a striking irony: that it’s much easier to find bad examples of development and self-determination in the Arctic than good ones. Abryutina, a Chukchi, is herself a casualty of the desperate choices facing northern Russian indigenous people: a doctor of radiology, she left her home region of Chukotka due to its declining standard of living. Since the 1990s, and the fall of the Soviet Union’s Communist government, things have gone from bad to worse for northern indigenous people in Russia, Abryutina said. And their life expectancy has fallen to between 40 and 45 years due to the environmental pollution, alcoholism and poor health care.
Posted 21 May 2010; 1:52:29 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conferences, Health and wellness, Indigenous Issues, May10, Russia, Social Issues
EU, Russia, Norway and Iceland embark on closer cultural partnership
(Nordic Council News, 18 May 2010) -- The EU member states, Russia, Norway and Iceland are to work more closely together on cultural issues after the joint International Forum for the establishment of new tools for cultural co-operation in Northern Europe. High-level officials from the countries will sign a Memorandum of Understanding in Saint Petersburg, 20-21 May. The Forum in St. Petersburg brings together individuals involved in the cultural sphere, creative enterprises, cultural institutions and officials from 11 countries to look at ways of boosting the creative economy in the area covered by the Northern Dimension. All of the European countries are currently discussing how to adopt these concepts and develop the potential for a creative economy, a growth sector capable of creating jobs and prosperity but which lacks funding and investment tools. The Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (NDPC) is a new initiative for Northern Europe scheduled to be up and running in 2011. Its main objective is to facilitate access to funding for long-term projects and for enterprises capable of generating jobs and becoming self-sustainable. The NDPC will complement existing national and international organisations and institutions working on cultural co-operation and exchange, providing an extra platform to facilitate and promote dialogue and the exchange of best practices in the cultural sphere.
Posted 19 May 2010; 4:37:32 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, International, May10, Nordic Region, Russia
Thin Arctic ice may see drifting stations on artificial platforms
(RIA Novosti, 3 May 2010) -- Moscow, Russia - Thinning Arctic ice may cause drifting research stations to be placed on firm ground or artificially-made platforms, the head of Russian Meteorological Centre said on Thursday. "We have to think about using some ... constructions, instead of blocks of drifting ice as platforms," Alexander Frolov said. Russian and Soviet polar scientists have used drifting ice stations in the Arctic Ocean since the 1930s. A new Russian drifting polar station started work in September 2009. However the ice it was placed on has begun to break up and the station will be removed in June.
Posted 2 May 2010; 10:40:26 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arctic Ocean, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, May10, Research, Russia
Sovcomflot plots northerly route with landmark Arctic voyage
(Craig Eason/Lloyd's List, 29 April 2010) -- Russian shipowner Sovcomflot plans to make a decision in the coming weeks on which of its vessels it will use to take a full cargo of oil through the northern sea route this summer. The company is planning on making the high-profile voyage in August or September, sending either a medium range or aframax tanker eastbound through the Arctic waters.
Posted 28 April 2010; 11:08:20 PM. Permalink
Tagged: April10, Circumpolar News, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Norway agrees Barents Sea Arctic border with Russia
(BBC News, 27 April 2010) -- Russia and Norway have reached agreement on a disputed Arctic border in the Barents Sea. The border, which cuts across an area thought to be rich in oil and gas, has been contested for decades. The territorial dispute meant proven offshore oil and gas deposits had not been exploited. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was quoted as saying on Tuesday that the two countries now agreed "on all elements". Mr Stoltenberg, speaking at a joint news conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, said the agreement was "good and balanced". "This solution is about more than a border line under the ocean," he said. "It is about developing good neighbour relations." In recent years, several states have launched claims to Arctic territory as climate change and technological developments have increased access to the region.
Posted 27 April 2010; 4:10:15 PM. Permalink
Tagged: April10, Autonomy, Sovereignty and Politics, Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, International, Norway, Russia
Mishandling of radioactive materials accelerating demise of Russia’s Arctic population
(Paul Goble/Moldova.org, 24 April 2010)** -- The dying off of the numerically small peoples of the Russian North, already taking place because of economic development and climate change, is being accelerated by the mishandling of nuclear materials at power stations and military bases in that region and especially by the lack of secure storage facilities for nuclear wastes there. In a study of this problem published this week, Sergey Rykov says that the impact of radiation on the lives of these nationalities is so great that it is time to think about creating a Red Book not just for animals and plants but for threatened and now disappearing peoples like the Yukagirs, the Ens, and the Negidals, each of which numbers fewer than 1,000 people. Many people have written about the way in which the economic development of the Russian North and climate changes have affected these peoples in a negative way, Rykov says, but few have focused on the ways in which radioactive materials are killing off these peoples. In the waters off the Kola Peninsula, there are ships which “up to now are used for storing radioactive wastes and spent nuclear fuel.” Some of these are only “two kilometers” from places where people live. As a result, “drinking water brings death,” although few are prepared to talk about it, and many residents do not even know they are at risk. Murmansk oblast, Rykov continues, has the largest number of nuclear reactors per person “not only for Russia as a whole but even for the entire world.” There are 123 nuclear ships in the Northern Fleet, with a total of 235 reactors. In addition, there are nuclear weapons and nuclear power stations. What is making the current situation especially serious, Rykov says, is the processing of decommissioning nuclear-powered ships there and in the Far East. On the Kola Peninsula alone, there are now a minimum of five “dumps” where spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste are being deposited, often with little concern to the surround environment or population.
Posted 25 April 2010; 6:16:59 PM. Permalink
Tagged: April10, Circumpolar News, Health and wellness, Indigenous Issues, Russia
Russia may play crucial role in Arctic protection - expert
(RIA Novosti, 19 April 2010) -- WASHINGTON - Russia may become a leader in the protection of the Arctic environment and northern indigenous peoples, the head of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change said in an interview with RIA Novosti. Patricia Cochran, who heads the U.S.'s Alaska Native Science Commission, said rapid climate change is the main problem which faces the Arctic, causing a number of concerns, such as "food safety and security, erosion and permafrost impacting community housing and infrastructure, safe traveling with loss of stable sea ice." Among other problems, Cochran said, are land and resource development that is not coordinated with the needs of Arctic residents, as well as the loss of cultural identity by indigenous peoples, and health-related issues. The Russian Geographic Society in cooperation with RIA Novosti will hold the International Arctic Forum titled "The Arctic: Territory of Dialogue", which will bring together environment experts from across the world, on April 22-23 in Moscow. "Working together and recognizing rights of all involved is an important step in resolving these problems. Open discussion among organizations, states and communities is vital. Forums that include all actors as equal participants provided richer dialogue and more appropriate actions," Cochran said. She said Russia had an "important role" in the dialogue as an "area critical to future development." "Russia has the opportunity to provide worldwide leadership in setting the stage and setting the bar to standards that meet the needs of all people," the expert said.
Posted 18 April 2010; 11:10:10 PM. Permalink
Tagged: April10, Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, International, Russia
PHOTOS: Rescuing Jean-Louis Etienne in Yakutia’s Arctic Siberia
(eYakutia, 18 April 2010) -- Take a look at 38 exclusive photographs of how Polar Airlines was rescuing the French Arctic explorer Jean-Louis Etienne in the Arctic tundra of Yakutia’s Siberia after his 5-days North Pole balloon crossing on April 11th, 2010.
Posted 18 April 2010; 6:21:23 PM. Permalink
Tagged: April10, Circumpolar News, Expeditions, field trips, tours, Far East Russia, Russia
(Barents Observer, 7 April 2010) -- Regional authorities in Murmansk want to limit the free movement of reindeer herds to 100-200 km wide zones. In an interview with newspaper Vedomosti, regional Governor Dmitry Dmitriyenko said that his administration plans to establish 100-200 km wide zones for the regional reindeer herds. This will help raise productivity, the governor argues. Today, reindeer herds migrate over major parts of the peninsula. Governor Dmitriyenko says the changing climate makes it increasingly difficult to gather the herds at slaughter time because the rivers now freeze later than before. It is the indigenous Sami population which has the reindeer herding as its main industry. The main Sami settlements are located in the central parts of the peninsula with the town of Lovozero as the main centre.
Posted 12 April 2010; 12:25:10 AM. Permalink
Tagged: April10, Circumpolar News, Economic issues, Indigenous Issues, Northwest Russia, Resource Issues, Russia
(Siku News, 12 April 2010) -- A Finnish movie by Anastasia Lapsui and Markku Lehmuskallio has won the Grand Prix at the Festival International de Films de Femmes in Créteil, France. The film, Last of the Line, tells the story of a young Nenets girl in the 1960's who must leave her home to go to a Russian-language school. The film explores the girl's life as she is stripped of her identity as a member of the Nenets community in a Soviet school. The story is based on the area where director Lapsui spent her childhood, on the Yamal peninsula. Last of the Line débuted at the Berlin Film Festival in February and was shown for the first time in Finland on February 26. This is the second time that Lapsui and Lehmuskallio won top prize in Créteil. They also took home the Grand Prix in 2000 for Seven Songs from the Tundra. The Festival International de Films de Femmes is a festival designed to showcase the work of women filmmakers.
Posted 12 April 2010; 12:21:25 AM. Permalink
Tagged: April10, Arts and Artists, Celebrations, Circumpolar News, Finland, Movies, video and TV, Northwest Russia, Russia
Expedition to seek grounds for Russia's Arctic shelf enlargement
(RIA Novosti, 9 April 2010) -- MOSCOW - The Russian government has allocated funds for an Arctic expedition to provide scientific grounds for the enlargement of the country's Arctic shelf, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Friday. "The billions of rubles required for organizing this expedition in 2010 have been provided ... and finances for an icebreaker have been found," Ivanov told the Rossiya-24 TV channel. Ivanov stressed that the main aim of the expedition was to gather scientific facts which would substantiate a Russian application to a UN commission to enlarge its Arctic continental shelf. Arctic territories have been at the center of geopolitical wrangling between the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark as rising temperatures lead to a reduction in sea ice and make hydrocarbon deposits under the Arctic Ocean increasingly accessible. Under international law, each of the five Arctic Circle countries has a 322-kilometer (200-mile) exclusive economic zone in the Arctic Ocean. However, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, if a country can show its continental shelf extends beyond the 200-mile limit, it can claim a right to more of the ocean floor. Russia has undertaken two Arctic expeditions — to the Mendeleyev underwater chain in 2005 and to the Lomonosov Ridge in the summer of 2007 — to support its territorial claims in the region. It first claimed the territory in 2001, but the United Nations demanded more conclusive evidence. Russia has said it will invest some 1.5 billion rubles ($50 million) in defining the extent of its continental shelf in the Arctic in 2010.
Posted 10 April 2010; 2:35:33 PM. Permalink
Tagged: April10, Autonomy, Sovereignty and Politics, Circumpolar News, Expeditions, field trips, tours, Russia
Expert: Norway-Russian Arctic deal is near
(Stefan Nicola/UPI, 31 March 2010) -- BERLIN - A 40-year-old conflict between Russia and Norway over an Arctic sea boundary will likely be over next month, an expert told United Press International. "I think there will be an agreement announced on the Barents Sea border dispute," when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is in Oslo April 26-27, Rune Rafaelsen, the secretary-general of the Barents Secretariat, a diplomacy group focusing on regional cooperation financed by Norway's foreign ministry, told UPI in a telephone interview. "What's the reason for me to say this? Well, why would Medvedev spend two days in Norway if there was nothing new to announce? Also, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg met (Russian Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin two weeks ago in Helsinki in talks that hadn't been planned. Those are indications that we might have an agreement." Russia and Norway have for the past four decades disagreed over boundaries in the Barents Sea, which is believed to hold vast amounts of oil, gas and precious metals. Relations between both nations are nevertheless strong, with Moscow inviting Norway's StatoilHydro to join Gazprom in tapping the Shtokman fossil fuel deposit in the Barents Sea. Climate change is causing Arctic ice sheets to melt, with the oceans in the region possibly ice-free during the summer months. This is opening a new Atlantic-Pacific shipping channel and makes the vast natural resources lying under the seabed more accessible.
Posted 5 April 2010; 12:36:52 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, International, March10, Norway, Russia
Moscow airport Vnukovo to become Arctic logistics base
(BarentsObserver, 19 March 2010) -- Russia is preparing this season’s Arctic research
expeditions to the floating ice base Barneo by
the North Pole, Aviation
Explorer reports. The first flight for the ice floe that has been
elected for the base is planned to leave Norilsk on March 19. The ice base will in course of the season be visited by the country’s
first persons, the web site writes. At a meeting in Moscow yesterday on preparations for the next season
of research on Barneo, Special Presidential Aide on Arctic and Antarctic
Affairs Artur Chilingarov urged Mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov to
establish a logistics base for the expeditions at Vnukovo, one of the
three major airports in Moscow. Mr. Luzhkov reacted positively to Mr. Chilingarov’s appeal, and
ordered his people to start the necessary procedures immediately,
Aviation Explorer writes. Mr. Chilingarov also appealed to investors to contribute to the
logistics base and to Russia’s other Arctic projects, since “this is
Russia’s future”: "The government is devoting the Arctic enormous significance," he
said. As BarentsObserver
reported, both President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin this week
have stressed the importance of the Arctic to Russia and defended
Russia’s claims to the shipping-vital Arctic continental shelf. Watch video from Barneo: Barneo
Posted 21 March 2010; 4:47:13 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arctic Ocean, Circumpolar News, Expeditions, field trips, tours, March10, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Oil companies to finance Nenets highway
(RIA Novosti via BarentsObserver, 18 March 2010) -- The administration of the far northern Nenets Autonomous Okrug intends to make oil companies finance the projected road between Naryan-Mar and Usinsk, the only way connecting the region with the outside world. Regional Governor Igor Fyodorov says to RIA Novosti that he will request federal authorities to include the road construction as part of the license conditions in the Trebs and Titov field projects. As BarentsObserver reported, the two big oil fields will be offered in a tender this spring. Governor Fyodorov says the winner of the tenders should be obliged to finance the construction of the road. The construction of the 386 km long Naryan-Mar-Usinsk road was started in 1991 but then halted as funding dried out. A total of 83 km remains of the road.
Posted 20 March 2010; 12:09:13 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, March10, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
70th anniversary of the end of the Winter War
(YLE, 13 March 2010) -- Saturday saw observances around the country marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the 1939-1940 Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union. President Tarja Halonen opened a Winter War seminar at Helsinki's old Diet of Estates with an address in which she told her audience that the Finns should not forget what massive suffering the war meant for the nation. She noted that the shadow of the conflict also fell over many who did not take part in battle. She expressed a sense of satisfaction that those who were displaced as children during the war and war orphans have of late been able to more fully make their stories known. "In one way or another, war affects the identities of even those who have not directly experienced it. The message has been passed from one generation to the next," she said. The event in Helsinki was also addressed by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. Former President Mauno Koivisto was in attendance. During the afternoon, President Halonen hosted a reception at the Presidential Palace, for Finnish war veterans, as well as Swedish and Estonian volunteers who fought on Finland's side in the 1939-1940 conflict. The Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union began on the 30th of November 1939 and ended with the signing of a peace treaty on March 13th, 1940.
Posted 14 March 2010; 2:18:32 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Celebrations, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Finland, March10, Russia
Rent-a-forest scheme promises to save Russia's taiga
(Mareike Aden/Living Planet, 12 March 2010) -- [This story is not exactly northern, but it's interesting.] In the Bikin River Valley, in the region close to Russia's border with China, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and the indigenous locals [Udege and Nanai] have found an unusual conservation solution.
Posted 13 March 2010; 3:02:43 PM. 0113DECA.mp3 Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, Environment and Landscape, Far East Russia, Indigenous Issues, March10, Russia
Woolly mammoths resurfacing in Siberia
(Megan K. Stack/LA Times, 2 March 2010) -- Reporting from Moscow - The beasts had long lain extinct and forgotten, embedded deep in the frozen turf, bodies swaddled in Earth's layers for thousands of years before Christ. Now, the Russian permafrost is offering up the bones and tusks of the woolly mammoths that once lumbered over the tundra. They are shaped into picture frames, chess sets, pendants. They are gathered and piled, carved and whittled, bought and sold on the Internet. The once-obscure scientists who specialize in the wastelands of Siberia have opened lucrative sidelines as bone hunters, spending the summer months trawling the northern river banks and working networks of locals to gather stockpiles of bones. They speak of their work proudly, and a little mystically. "You need to have luck to find bones," said Fyodor Romanenko, a geologist at Moscow State University. "I don't look for bones. I find them. They find me. "Every find gives you a huge joy," he said. "It's a gift from nature, from the Arctic, from fate." The mammoth finds have been growing steadily over the last three decades as Russia's vast sea of permafrost slowly thaws. Russian scientists disagree over whether global warming is responsible. Some say yes, others are skeptical. But nobody argues that the permafrost is dwindling — and they're glad to have the bones and tusks, especially when the increased yields coincide with bans on elephant ivory. Hand-to-mouth reindeer herders on Russia's desolate tundra have coexisted with the traces of mammoths for generations. Romanenko claims that there are cases of long-frozen mammoth meat being thawed and cooked, or fed to the dogs. Now entire villages are surviving on the trade in mammoth bones. And a new verb has entered the vernacular: mamontit, or "to mammoth" -- meaning, to go out in search of bones. "People used to just come across bones and throw them aside or take them to the garbage, because they were not interested in them," said Gennady Tatarinov, who oversees a reindeer farm in Anyuisk, a frigid village 4,000 miles northeast of Moscow. "But now there's a big demand," Tatarinov said. "And of course there's a lot of competition, and people who make it their main trade." Many of the populated areas have been picked clean, driving scavengers deeper and deeper into the wilderness in the hunt for bones.
Posted 7 March 2010; 12:28:33 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Economic issues, Flora and Fauna, March10, Russia
New Arctic supertanker starts commercial operation
(ITAR-TASS, 28 February 2010) -- ST. PETERSBURG - The Mikhail Ulyanov Arctic supertanker built at the Admiralty Shipyards to Sovcomflot’s order has been supplied to the Russian commercial fleet. The tanker goes on its first voyage on Sunday. It will carry several tens of thousands of petroleum products from the Primorsk seaport in the Leningrad region to West European terminals. The tanker has the deadweight of 70,000 tonnes, the length of 257 meters and the width of 34 meters, Admiralty Shipyards General Director Vladimir Alexandrov told Itar-Tass. The construction of similar high-tech tankers will continue, in particular, for developers of circumpolar shelf deposits. The Admiralty Shipyards has orders for the next two or three years within the framework of the Russian shipbuilding program for the period until 2020. The Kirill Lavrov supertanker will be supplied to Sovcomflot this year. The tanker was launched on December 18, 2009. An Antarctic research vessel and the Igor Belousov ship for rescuing submarines in distress will be ready in 2011.
Posted 28 February 2010; 10:48:56 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, February10, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Murmansk lawmakers pass radwaste bill that will turn Kola Peninsula into a nuclear dump
(Anna Kireeva with Maria Kaminskaya/Bellona, 23 February 2010) -- MURMANSK - Legislators in Russia’s Far Northern Murmansk Region, on the Kola Peninsula, have signalled a green light to the interment of liquid radioactive waste in their region – brushing aside the public and environmentalists’ concerns and, effectively, giving Moscow authorities a carte blanche to create nuclear repositories in Murmansk, while the costs of handling the already accumulated stockpiles of radioactive waste will have to be borne by regional and municipal budgets. The questionable bill “On Management of Radioactive Waste” was passed in its first reading in the federal parliament in the Russian capital during a plenary session on January 20 and raised a storm of objections from Russia’s ecological organisations. Non-governmental organisations decried the bill as a means for the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom to attend to its own narrow interests while going bluntly against the interests of the nation. In an open letter to lawmakers in Moscow, they urged them to halt on passing the bill without making serious amendments. They praised the attempt to better regulate the issues of radiation safety in Russia – the country still has no law governing the management of radioactive waste – but the new law, environmentalists said, will allow injecting liquid radioactive waste underground, which runs contrary to other Russian legislation already in force – namely, the Law on Protection of the Environment and the Water Code. It will, they said, place all responsibility for the disposal of liquid radioactive waste on the shoulders of local municipalities and absolve Rosatom of any accountability for the handling of waste already accumulated. It will also allow authorities to disregard the public’s opinion when making decisions to create radioactive waste repositories, environmentalists warned. The bill probably affects Murmansk Region more than other constituent territories of the Russian Federation. Vast stockpiles of radioactive waste have been accrued on the Kola Peninsula in the decades since atomic power has been used commercially and for military purposes in the Soviet Union and Russia. These activities have engendered quite a number of most urgent problems in terms of radiation safety, including storage of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste at former naval bases, such as the infamous Andreyeva Bay, issues associated with decommissioning Soviet and Russian nuclear-powered fleet and refuelling vessels, just to name a few.
Posted 28 February 2010; 12:04:23 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, February10, Laws and legal, Northwest Russia, Russia
Siberian crane gets international support: UN
(RedOrbit, 24 February 2010) -- The United Nations reported on Wednesday that several countries, including Russia, Iran and China, are working together to bring back the Siberian Crane form the brink of extinction. The pure white, 55-inch tall crane is considered to be critically endangered with a population of less than 3,500 individuals left. But, with the help of the international community, “the future of the Siberian crane is looking brighter,” said Claire Mirande, director of the Siberian Crane Wetland Project. The large crane is migratory and flies 3,100 miles every year from its breeding habitat in northern Siberia to Iran and southern China. Many wetland regions along its migration route are being drained for farming. The project to save the bird is being supported by the Global Environment Facility and being implemented by the International Crane Foundation through the UN Environment Program. This is the first project of its kind to take on a ‘flyway’ approach to secure the future of the species. Flyways are flight paths that birds use for the annual migration from breeding grounds to wintering areas. Many times these flyways span oceans and continents.
Posted 24 February 2010; 4:18:01 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, Far East Russia, Flora and Fauna, Russia, Siberia
Preparing for exploration off Yamal
(BarentsObserver, 19 February 2010) -- A Russian government service is to evaluate a report on the exploration of the shelf west of the Yamal Peninsula. The Russian Service on Ecological, Technological and Nuclear control is to conduct a state evaluation of materials on the mapping of the waters west of the Yamal Peninsula, the government body informs on its website. The waters outside Yamal are along with the Kara Sea believed to contain major amounts of hydrocarbons, and first of all natural gas. Gazprom is currently in the process of developing land-based fields in the Yamal Peninsula. Those fields, among them the huge Bovanenkovo field, could pave the way also for offshore developments. It is Gazprom which has the licenses to the fields in the area. The Ministry of Natural Resources will, in the course of February, publish a report on the development of the Russian shelf, RIA Novosti reports.
Posted 21 February 2010; 1:03:11 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, February10, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Resource Issues, Russia, Siberia
No radiation danger as scrapped nuclear sub catches fire in north Russia
(RIA Novosti, 20 February 2010) -- ST. PETERSBURG - A nuclear submarine being scrapped caught fire on Friday at the Zvezdochka shipyard in northern Russia's city of Severodvinsk, but there is no radiation danger, the city administration said. "A fire started in the hold of the third compartment of the K-480 Ak Bars nuclear submarine. The submarine is being scrapped, nuclear fuel has been removed from the reactor. There is no radiation danger for the population," it said in a statement. No one was reported injured. Up to 70 people are involved in the effort to put out the fire.
Posted 20 February 2010; 1:07:14 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Disasters, etc., February10, Russia
Canada and Russia working jointly for the well-being of the Aboriginal peoples of the Arctic
(Indian and Northern Affairs Canada press release #2-3317, 12 February 2010) -- Vancouver, BC - The Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, today signed a new work plan with the Honourable Viktor Fyodorovich Basargin, Minister of Regional Development of the Russian Federation, to implement concrete activities under the 2007 Memorandum of Understanding on the Cooperation of Northern Development and Aboriginal Issues. ... The Memorandum of Understanding builds on past accomplishments and will be implemented jointly by both countries. It will provide an opportunity to continue the exchange of best practices in the preservation of Aboriginal languages; building capacity for local public administration; sharing tools for Aboriginal policy research and the promotion of public-private partnerships, especially in areas affected by resource development in the Arctic. ... For the purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding, the participants will encourage and facilitate direct contact between regional, territorial and local governments, Aboriginal groups and organizations of the Northern regions of both countries as well as the academic and scientific institutions, and the private sector.
Posted 14 February 2010; 3:49:12 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, February10, Indigenous Issues, Russia
Four people die in fire in Yakutia settlement
(Itar-Tass, 14 February 2010) -- KHABAROVSK - Four people died in the fire that broke out at four-storey apartment block in Yakutia’s settlement of Chersky on Sunday, the main EMERCOM department in Yakutia told Itar-Tass on Sunday. Some 38 people were evacuated from the building by the firefighters, who arrived at the fire site ten minutes after the fire alarm call. The firefighters prevented the fire from spreading to neighboring buildings and saved the house. However, they failed to save four residents, who were found dead after the fire. The fire victims are being identified. A group of investigators is working at the fire site.
Posted 14 February 2010; 10:22:18 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Disasters, etc., Far East Russia, February10, Russia
Russian Barents population decrease
(BarentsObserver, 5 February 2010) -- The North of Russia is under the threat of depopulation. Since the year 2000 the population in the Russian part of the Barents region decreased by 462,000, or by almost 11 percent. According to the yearly demographic report of the State Statistical Committee the Russian territories of the Barents region in the beginning of 2009 had 31 thousand inhabitants less than one year ago. That is 0.8 percent less than in 2008. In the three-year period from 2006 to 2008 the total population of the Russian Federation decreased by 317,000 people. This is approximately as much as the population of the biggest city in the Barents region; Arkhangelsk. During the ten-year period from 2000 to 2010, the population of the Russian Federation was reduced by almost 5 million citizens, or -3.4 %. At the same time the population in the Russian part of the Barents region declined by 54,000 people from 2006 to 2008, or by 1.4 per cent, according to the 2009 edition of the Demographic Yearbook of Russia. The biggest population decline in the ten-year period since 2000 was observed in Murmansk Oblast (by 10.4 percent), in Komi Republic (by 9.3 percent), and in Arkhangelsk Oblast (by 9.2 percent). The population of Karelia decreased 6.5 percent. One year ago, in the beginning of 2009, the total population of Barents Russia was 3,793,000 people. Today, according to the preliminary data of the State Statistical Committee the population in these five territories decreased again by 24,000. The greatest declines occured in Murmansk oblast and the Republic of Komi.
Posted 6 February 2010; 11:10:04 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, February10, Northwest Russia, Research, Russia, Social Issues
Stomach bug puts 200 children in hospital in Russia's Far East
(RIA Novosti, 31 January 2010) -- Over 200 children, most of them younger than three years, have been hospitalized with acute intestinal infection in the Magadan Region in the Russian Far East, Rossiya TV channel reported on Sunday. Doctors believe the children were poisoned after eating imported fruits - bananas, apples and citruses - largely supplied from China, the TV channel reported. Local health authorities are taking measures to contain the spread of the virus, the TV channel said. Doctors say the virus has affected whole families in the area, with children hit hardest, the TV channel said. The infection is likely to subside in spring when navigation will allow domestic food supplies into the subarctic region, the TV channel reported.
Posted 31 January 2010; 12:26:25 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Far East Russia, Health and wellness, January10, Russia
Population in Severodvinsk shrinks and ages
(BarentsObserver, 22 January 2010) -- Nearly one quarter of the population has moved from Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast in course of the last 16 years. Every sixth inhabitant is now over 60 years. The latest demographic statistics for Severodvinsk are worth some reflection, local newspaper Northwestern Worker writes. The town’s population is constantly shrinking, and the average age of the remaining people is increasing. The population has shrunk from 258.600 people in 1991 to 188.000 in 2009. Severodvinsk has always been regarded as a young town. In the Soviet period this was an industrial center where the best specialists from all over the country came to work. Severodvinsk is the second largest city in Arkhangelsk Oblast. Its main industry remains defense related - Russia’s largest shipbuilding company Sevmash is located here, as well as the major ship repair yard Zvezdochka. Nearly 70 percent of the working population is employed in the ship building or ship repair industry. The main factor in the population decline is migration. The number of people moving from Severodvinsk exceeds the number of people moving to the town by 2-3 times. Only in 2008, 2583 people moved from Severodvinsk, while 431 decided to settle there. Many of the people leaving Severodvinsk are young people who decide not to come back after having finished university or college. The situation got somewhat better in 2009, Northwestern Worker writes. The economic crisis did not have such a big impact on Severodvinsk as on many other Russian towns, and many young people found it more profitable to stay home. At the same time, the remaining population is getting older. For every 1000 persons in active working age, there are 450 children, juveniles and pensioners. The number of pensioners is growing every year, and now every sixth person in Severodvinsk is 60 years or older. Most of the elderly people in Severodvinsk are women, as the average life expectancy for men is only 59 years, while it is 73 years for women.
Posted 23 January 2010; 10:44:55 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, January10, Northwest Russia, Russia, Social Issues
Ship with 30 aboard stuck in ice off Russia's Pacific coast
(RIA Novosti, 22 January 2010) -- YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK - A ship with 30 crew on board sent a distress signal on Friday, warning that it could sink after becoming stuck in ice in the Sea of Okhotsk, off Russia's Pacific coast, local emergencies officials said. "The information that the refrigerator ship had become iced-in was received by the emergencies department of the Sakhalin Region at 07:40 Moscow time," the official said. All crew members on board the vessel are Russians, he said, adding that bad weather conditions could hamper any rescue operation. He said that emergency and maritime rescue officials were "exploring the possibility of involving ships located in the area ... to conduct a rescue operation." A local rescue center official said the trapped vessel had lost power and was unable to move.
Posted 22 January 2010; 10:27:20 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Disasters, etc., Far East Russia, January10, Russia
Heavy snow and high winds expected in southern Kamchatka
(Regnum.ru with aid from Google Translate, 20 January 2010) -- Southern Kamchatka is under a weather advisory for the period 21-23 January. Meteorologists are expecting snow and blizzards with visibility reduced to 500m and winds gusting to 60 km/h. The press service of the Far Eastern Regional Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia warns of increased risk of avalanches in the mountains during the same period. Local officials are preparing to respond to disruptions of some essential services, and the possibility of damage to heating and electrical infrastructure. In addition, billboards, awnings, electricity and power wires could be damaged by strong gusts of wind. Ships in coastal areas, too, are being cautioned.
Posted 20 January 2010; 11:42:29 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Far East Russia, January10, Russia
Amazing underwater photos show beluga whales meeting divers at Arctic rehabilitation farm
(Lizzie Smith/Daily Mail, 18 January 2010) -- They don’t get visitors in these parts that often. That’s because these beluga whales live under three feet of ice in the freezing waters of northern Russia’s White Sea. But when some underwater photographers arrived, they certainly weren’t shy - as these stunning images show. The whales are not endangered but under threat from pollution and loss of habitat. They are thriving, however, at this whale sanctuary, where a natural bay under the ice provides a haven from the strong currents of the wider ocean. The 'natural farm' acts as a nursery for breeding whales, as well as acting as a rehabilitation centre for former performing animals before they are set into the wild. Photographer Franco Banfi, who took these shots [see them at the original item page; follow the title link] after his team carved through the ice with a handsaw, said: ‘When a whale comes up to us and swims by, it looks you right in the eyes. Sometimes, I’m sure they’re trying to figure out what we are and where we came from.
Posted 18 January 2010; 12:02:03 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, January10, Photography, Russia
Oil wastes threaten Dvina River
(BarentsObserver, 12 January 2010) -- A six-hectare area used as dump site for oil wastes from the shipping industry now threatens to seriously pollute the Northern Dvina River. The area located near the river bank has been used as a storage site for waste waters from the Arkhangelsk Port since the 1960s. According to Regnum, a significant part of the dangerous substances has already been washed into the river. The sandy ground in the area contains up to 95 times more oil substances than what is allowed. Up to 180 tons of oil is believed to be stored at the site. According to the regional Environmental Committee, pollution from the site threatens both local and regional environment. The Rambøll Barents company has been commissioned with finding alternative solutions for the problem.
Posted 12 January 2010; 11:12:23 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, January10, Northwest Russia, Russia
Methane release 'looks stronger'
(Michael Fitzpatrick/BBC Science, 6 January 2010) -- Scientists have uncovered what appears to be a further dramatic increase in the leakage of methane gas that is seeping from the Arctic seabed. Methane is about 20 times more potent than CO2 in trapping solar heat. The findings come from measurements of carbon fluxes around the north of Russia, led by Igor Semiletov from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. "Methane release from the East Siberian Shelf is underway and it looks stronger than it was supposed [to be]," he said. Professor Semiletov has been studying methane seepage in the region for the last few decades, and leads the International Siberian Shelf Study (ISSS), which has launched multiple expeditions to the Arctic Ocean. The preliminary findings of ISSS 2009 are now being prepared for publication, he told BBC News. Methane seepage recorded last summer was already the highest ever measured in the Arctic Ocean. Acting as a giant frozen depository of carbon such as CO2 and methane (often stored as compacted solid gas hydrates), Siberia's shallow shelf areas are increasingly subjected to warming and are now giving up greater amounts of methane to the sea and to the atmosphere than recorded in the past. This undersea permafrost was until recently considered to be stable. But now scientists think the release of such a powerful greenhouse gas may accelerate global warming. Higher concentrations of atmospheric methane are contributing to global temperature rise; this in turn is projected to cause further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane in a feedback loop.
Posted 8 January 2010; 7:58:56 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate change response, Environment and Landscape, January10, Research, Russia
(Charles Digges/Bellona, 5 January 2010) -- NEW YORK – A new joint venture between Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom and En+, another Russian energy giant and the majority shareholder of RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium and alumina producer, is aiming to commercialise small lead-cooled reactors, an industry publication reported. The 50/50 deal that was inked on December 25th will be named AKME Engineering. En+ is a part of the Basic Element Group. The SVBR-100 favoured by the joint venture – and like so many other types of Russian fast reactors that have yet to pass from the drawing board to experimental stages – has been on slow percolation for many years, meaning, according to some analysts, that the design is already fatally out of step with contemporary reactor requirements. The project also bears the kind of desperation that has characterised so many Russian nuclear efforts in the recent past – like floating nuclear power stations and the extremely unpopular Baltic Nuclear Power Plant – as the industry struggles against environmental norms to draw funding and maintain relevance as its stable of reactors grows older and its ability to store spent nuclear fuel decreases to nil. The joint release, however, said the SVBR-100 is based on a reactor already in use on seven nuclear submarines, but did not specify which. Further calls for this information to Rosatom by Bellona Web were passed from spokesman to spokesman, none of whom could answer the question. One spokesman did, however, confirm reports that a prototype of the reactor will be required to prove design improvements over its seafaring cousins, and that this reactor should be ready by 2019. According to the joint release by the companies, they will, “design and produce a prototype 100 MWe lead-bismuth fast reactor with a view to commercialize the technology," World Nuclear News reported.
Posted 5 January 2010; 5:26:59 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Nuclear issues, Russia
The electronification of Russian regions
(BarentsObserver, 4 January 2010) -- All state services in the Russian regions are to be made available electronically by 2015, President Dmitry Medvedev underlined in a recent State Council session. The meeting, which was devoted to the development of information technologies, was attended by the governors and a number of cabinet ministers and high-ranking officials. It took place on 23 December. The governors who do not cope with the mission will be dismissed, the president threatened in his speech, newspaper Kommersant reports. According to Minister of Communication Igor Shchegolev, Russian small businesses today spend ten percent of their turnover on overcoming red tape and the Russian population altogether spend up to 25 million days per year on getting public services. There are a total of about 1,500 public services which will be made electronic by 2015, newspaper Kommersant writes.
Posted 3 January 2010; 10:13:00 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Internet Resources, January10, Russia, Social Issues
Russia to start eastward oil, gas shipments via Arctic in 2010
(Ria Novosti, 26 December 2009) -- NOVO-OGARYOVO - Sovcomflot, Russia's largest shipping company, will start delivering Russian oil and gas in the eastern direction of its Arctic shipping lane in the summer, the company head said on Saturday. At a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Sergei Frank said Sovcomflot was planning to launch pilot shipments of Russian hydrocarbon reserves in the eastern direction of the Northern Sea Route, from the Atlantic to the Pacific via Russia's Arctic, later this year. "We will make such pilot deliveries in the summer," he said. Frank said the goal was to expand oil and gas markets for domestic energy producers and enter new ones. The businessman said though shipments via the Arctic had been made before, the scale and cargoes were different. "We are cooperating closely with the transportation and nuclear power ministries, and with the federal office of Rosatomflot [state-run civil nuclear fleet corporation] now to arrange everything properly for [oil and gas] shipments," Frank said. He said the eastward shipment experience would later be used in the development of West Siberia's Yamal fields and also for liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies.
Posted 27 December 2009; 11:16:30 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
(Indigenous Peoples of the Barents Region, 15 December 2009) -- On November 23rd 2009, Sami Nurash, the Murmansk Regional Saami Youth Organization, was established and registered. "November 23rd is a great day of joy for us, as it is the day all our efforts are rewarded," says Anna Afanasyeva, who is elected chairperson of the Saami youth organization. The Saami youth living on the Kola Peninsula have struggled for ten years to have a Saami youth organization registered, and they succeeded on the third attempt. Throughout the later years, Saami youth in Russia have been cooperating with Saami youth in the Nordic countries, through joint seminars and conferences and the Working Group for establishing an All-Saami youth organization. Saami youth are organized through Noereh (Norway), Sáminuorra (Sweden), Suoma Sámi Nuorat (Finland) and Sami Nurash (Russia).
Posted 21 December 2009; 2:17:54 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Indigenous Issues, Northwest Russia, Russia, Social Issues, Youth
Underground diamond mine at Aikhal commissioned
(Jewellery News, 21 December 2009) -- The Aikhal underground diamond mine, located in the Russian republic of Sakha (Yakutia) has been commissioned in the presence of Vyacheslav Shtyrov, president of Yakutia, Fyodor Andreyev, President of Russian diamond miner Alrosa, as well as employees of the diamond giant. The new mine forms part of the Aikhal Integrated Mining and Processing Complex (Aikhal GOK), which was established in 1986 originally with the purpose to operate the Sytykan open-pit mine and with a plan to increase the ore production in the future by commissioning the Jubilee open-pit mine. Until now, the Aikhal GOK has operated three open-pit mines: Sytykan, Aikhal and Jubilee, No. 8 Ore Treatment Plant, transportation department and auxiliary facilities to support the mining operations, as well as a number of social facilities. The new Aikhal underground mine has a life expectancy of 25 years, an is expected to produce 500,000 tons of diamond ore annually. The total investment since the beginning of development of the deposit by underground mining has been nearly 9 billion Russian rubles. The number of employees at the mine now stands at 380 people, which will increase to 600. The Aikhal diamond deposit was discovered on January 22, 1960. The Aikhal pipe is located in the northwestern part of Yakutia, about 450km to the north of the city of Mirny, within a permafrost zone. The deposit is located within the left-hand valley slope of the Sokhsolookh-Markhinsky Creek and is an explosion-type pipe extending in the northeastern direction.The Aikhal open-pit mine is located at a steep left-hand slope of the Sakhsolookh River and constitutes a typical mountain-slope pit. For more information on Alrosa visit: http://www.diamondne.ws/directory/alrosa-co-ltd/
Posted 21 December 2009; 2:04:17 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Celebrations, Circumpolar News, December09, Far East Russia, Resource Issues, Russia
Arctic haze decline may be tied to less Russian smelting
(Ned Rozell/Alaska Science, Anchorage Daily News, 19 December 2009) -- Arctic haze, a blob of dirty air that fuzzes up Alaska views in springtime, seems to be losing its punch. By comparing air measurements in Barrow from the 1970s to 2008, scientists have found that pollution particles from factories in Russia and Eurasia have become fewer and fewer in the last 30 years. "The Arctic haze is disappearing," said Glenn Shaw, who did pioneering research on the phenomenon and is the co-author on a recent paper about its decrease. "We don't know why." Shaw, a professor emeritus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute, has in years past stopped passersby to point out how Arctic haze—pollution particles in the air that scatter light—has "obliterated" views of the Alaska Range in springtime. In recent years, he has noticed that the vistas have been much clearer from Fairbanks, and instrumentation in Barrow seems to back that up. "There's less of the industrial signal, of what's typically been known as Arctic haze," said Patricia Quinn, a research chemist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle and the lead author of the study, which appeared in the Nov. 23 issue of the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. First named by an Air Force pilot in the 1950s, Arctic haze appears in the north from about January until early May, when a more active atmosphere flushes and dilutes what Shaw once called an Africa-size amoeba of dirty air that sloshes over the top of the globe. The decrease in that sort of pollution may be due to less smelting of heavy metals in Russia and improved emission technology. "I personally think they're pumping less junk into the atmosphere," Shaw said. "Things have changed."
Posted 20 December 2009; 6:59:17 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, December09, Russia
Russia launches icebreaker to boost Arctic oilfield
(Gleb Bryanski/Reuters, 18 December 2009) -- MOSCOW - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin launched an oil tanker on Friday capable of slicing through over a metre of ice, bringing Russia a step toward its decade-long ambition to launch its first offshore oilfield in the Arctic. State-run Gazprom has delayed the launch of its Prirazlomnoye oilfield for nearly ten years as it persists with domestic firms to equip the project, helping Russia develop the technical know-how to conquer other Arctic mineral riches. The 260-metre-long Kirill Lavrov was launched at the Admiralty Shipyards in St Petersburg, Putin's home city. "A year ago I saw anxious eyes of shipbuilders as they started work. It was a professional challenge," Putin was quoted as saying on the government's website, www.government.ru. Foreign reporters are not allowed to visit the shipyards. "It is amazing that such a giant was built in such a short period of time," Putin told shipbuilders. Russia, along with other countries bordering the Arctic, wants to assert its claims to the region's potentially huge mineral riches and is seeking to develop the relevant technology and fleet to develop lucrative deposits. The Kirill Lavrov, named after a popular Soviet actor renowned for playing the role of Vladimir Lenin, can break ice 1.2 metres thick when moving astern at a speed of three knots. It can reach a speed of 16 knots moving forward in open waters.
Posted 19 December 2009; 11:11:39 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Russian shipyard says recent radioactive leak poses no threat
(RIA Novosti, 12 December 2009) -- SEVERODVINSK - The Zvezdochka shipyard in northern Russia said on Friday that a recent minor radioactive leak at its storage facility posed no threat to people or environment. According to a Zvezdochka statement, the "radiation incident" took place on Thursday when about two cubic meters liquid radioactive waste leaked through a seam in a pipe connecting a storage tank and a waste treatment facility. "The pipe itself is located in a leak-proof tunnel and the waste did not spill outside," the statement said, adding that the tunnel has been drained of the waste in two hours following the leak. "The radiation levels around the tunnel are normal. The causes of the leak are being investigated," the shipyard said. Severodvinsk-based Zvezdochka is Russia's biggest shipyard for repairing and dismantling nuclear-powered submarines. It has the capacity to scrap up to four nuclear submarines per year.
Posted 11 December 2009; 9:52:59 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, December09, Northwest Russia, Nuclear issues, Russia
Oil pipe exploded in Yamal tundra
(BarentsObserver.com, 9 December 2009) -- Oil spill covered 100 square meters of land after an explosion in an oil-gathering line in the Yamalo-Nenets Okrug last week. According to the local Emergency Management Service, the accident was probably caused by metal fatigue, Uralinform.ru writes. A fire broke out, but was reported to have been put out quickly. No people were harmed in the accident and there was no danger of fire spreading. The pipe belongs to the company Rosneft-Purneftegaz.
Posted 11 December 2009; 4:17:49 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, December09, Disasters, etc., Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Russia, Siberia
(Barents Indigenous People, 8 December 2009) -- Yasavey is the Public Association of Nenets people in Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and the indigenous NGO celebrates its 20th anniversary on December 12th 2009. Events are planned in Naryan-Mar for the entire weekend.
Posted 9 December 2009; 4:50:20 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Celebrations, Circumpolar News, December09, Education and Civil Society, Indigenous Issues, Northwest Russia, Russia
Bellona hosts wide-ranging discussion on nuclear dangers in Russia’s Northwest
(Charless Digges/Bellona, 3 December 2009) -- As Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation beings to apply a stranglehold on information about the country’s nuclear energy programmes, the public is less and less likely to find out about how the Kola Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is operating at 104 percent capacity on reactors that have outlived their prospective life-spans. They are also less likely to know that it was advised by nuclear inspectors that these reactors never surpass 70 percent capacity, and that the current capacity they are running at could lead to Chernobyl—take two. Further kept in the dark is the fact that the Kola Peninsula, home to Murmansk, has an energy surplus making it entirely unnecessary to run the Kola NPP’s second generation reactors—which have received 10 year engineering life span expansions—at such a volume, making the risks of a radiological catastrophe entirely avoidable. The public of Northwest Russia is also lacking in the knowledge that there have been 53 radiologically hazardous incidents aboard nuclear powered surface ships since 2002—though probably more as the government stopped access this kind of information. And more generally, the public of Russia as a whole is most likely in the dark about the 15,000 plus tons of spent nuclear fuel that has filled Russia storage capacity to a seam-bursting 90-97 percent. Such were just a fraction of some of the facts that were revealed at a seminar Bellona held yesterday in Oslo on radioactive and nuclear problems in Russia’s northwest. This discouraging information was brought to light by a Bellona panel of Alexander Nikitin, chairman of Russia’s St. Petersburg offices, energy author and Bellona contributor Vladislav Larin, and Professor Vladimir Kuznetsov, a senior researcher at the Vavilov Institute of the History of Natural Sciences and Technology. He is also a former Russian nuclear regulatory inspector and member of Rosatom’s Public Council. They were joined by Johnny Almsted of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and Ingar Amundsen of the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority who participated in the debate portion of the seminar.
Posted 5 December 2009; 5:47:31 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conferences, Contaminants and Pollution, December09, Northwest Russia, Nuclear issues, Russia
50 years of nuclear-powered icebreakers
(BarentsObserver, 3 December 2009)** -- On December 3rd 1959, the world’s first nuclear-powered civilian vessel was officially taken into operation. Lenin was the first of nine nuclear icebreakers designed for navigation in the Arctic out of Murmansk. Today Lenin is a museum of Russia’s nuclear fleet. Equipped with originally three nuclear reactors, the icebreaker Lenin was launched from the shipyard in Leningrad in 1957. After two years of testing, Lenin was put into ordinary icebreaker operations by the end of 1959. She was then looked upon as a truly piece of master engineering. Lenin was transferred to Murmansk and got its own pier and onshore wooden house in the northern part of the city, then known as Base 92. Still, all maintenance and repair work was done at the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk near Arkhangelsk. Later, the base in Murmansk was extended and renamed RTP Atomflot and all repair work and maintenance of Lenin and the follow-up fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers were carried out there.
Posted 5 December 2009; 11:39:29 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, December09, Nuclear issues, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Nearly 300 people still living in devastated Kamchatka village
(Regnum.ru, 24 November 2009) -- In 2006, Korf, a village [established in the mid-1920s to house salmon fishers] in the Olyutorsky district on the coast of [60°22'17.83"N, 166° 0'54.38"E] suffered a severe earthquake. In December 2008, it was floods. In 2006, in response to the damage caused by the earthquake, the Governor of Kamchatka Territory, Alexei Kuzmitsky, authorized the relocation of Korf inhabitants to safer places. Rising sea levels threatened the spit of land on which the town was built and its location in a seismic zone meant that human habitation was deemed unsuitable by specialists of the Geophysical Institute. Each resident was told how the evacuation would proceed, when containers would be loaded with their personal effects. However, of the 22 families first chosen to leave Korf, only seven left. The remainder continue to live in condemned buildings without access to social services, which have been suspended because the community was to be abandoned. Since some 170 families have not yet been issued certificates for housing elsewhere, the government has shipped enough coal to keep the district heating plant working through the winter and have repaired the power line serving the community. (Loosely paraphrased from the GoogleTranslated version of the original Russian.)
Posted 30 November 2009; 5:03:51 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Far East / Russia, Natural disasters and other problems, November09, Russia, Social Issues, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
In Russian Arctic, global warming threatens traditional way of life
(Geert Groot Koerkamp /Deutsche Welle, 28 November 2009)** -- Russian scientists have doubts over whether global warming is here to stay and whether it's man made. But for the Saami in Russia's north, the mild winters already pose a threat to their traditional way of life. All around the Arctic, the effects of a temperature rise are visible, and native inhabitants of the tundras in Europa, Asia and North America are struggling with the new reality. That's also true for the Saami reindeer herders on Russia's Kola Peninsula, an area bordering on Norway and Finnish Lapland. But, in Russia, climate change is not a hot-button issue, nor is much attention being paid to the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen. Russian scientists say they have no evidence that global warming is a long-term trend, and doubt whether it is a man-made phenomenon. In the country's northern port in the town of Murmansk, the Marine Biological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences monitors life in and around the Barents Sea. The institute has amassed an impressive database concerning temperature and salinity of the sea over the course of the 20th century. Referring to the statistics, biologist Pavel Makarevich says there are clear cycles during which both temperature and salinity rise and fall. These cycles, he says, are related to solar activity. ... But for the Saami reindeer herders on Russia's Kola Peninsula between the Barents and the White Sea, a drop in temperature is urgently needed. Over the last few years, the winters have become milder and milder, threatening the traditional lifestyle of the Saami. This year again, the onset of winter was late in northern Russia. Normally, the tundra would already be covered by a deep layer of snow, and the numerous lakes would have a thick layer of ice. But snow cover is minimal and some of the lakes are not even frozen yet. For native reindeer herders, that's a problem, because the traditional slaughter season has to be postponed.
Posted 29 November 2009; 3:17:14 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Communities, Health and wellness, Indigenous Issues, November09, Russia
Federation Council discusses Arctic
(Barents Observer, 25 November 2009) -- Cooperation between countries in the Arctic region and protection of Russia’s interests in the region are amongst the topics up for discussion in the Russian Federation Council today. The Russian Federation Council’s committee for issues concerning the Arctic and indigenous peoples of the North today holds Parliament hearings on Russia’s efforts to upkeep life sustenance in the Arctic, web site B-port.com reports. The participants in the hearings—members of the Federation Council, deputies in the State Duma and representatives from federal and regional authorities—will discuss Russia’s participation in international organizations and trends in international cooperation. Among the speakers in the hearings are the Head of the committee Gennady Oleynik, Ambassador-at-large for Russia’s involvement in the Barents regional cooperation Anton Vasilyev and Vice President in the Association for the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East [RAIPON] Dmitry Berezhkov.
Posted 25 November 2009; 10:41:01 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, Indigenous Issues, November09, Russia
Sole Saami radio station in Russia in disarray
(Siku Circumpolar News, 18 November 2009) -- The director of the Kola Saami radio has disappeared and the employees
have not been paid for the past four months, reports the Barents
Observer. The employees are now fear a closure of the Kola Saami Radio will make it impossible to start up again later. But tax officials and the state attorney are seriously concerned about how the radio station will cover their debt of 270,000 RUR ($10,000), reports NRK Sami Radio in Norway. NRK has tried to get in contact with the director of Kola Saami Radio, Aleksandr Paul, without success. Another journalist with the Kola Sami Radio, Jevgenij Kirillov, says director Paul is in a dangerous situation right now. "The authorities are suspecting him of not paying the debt and salaries, and therefore are threatening to put him in jail," Kirillov told NRK. Kola Saami Radio has been in economic trouble for a long time. In February the Norwegian Barents Secretariat gave the radio 45,000 NOK (€5,000) and said they also hoped other organizations would assist the only radio station in Russia broadcasting in the Saami language. The radio also has received money from the Norwegian Saami Parliament, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nordic Council of Ministers and the European Union's Interreg program. In total, Kola Sami Radio has got millions of roubles during the last decade. The grants provided were supposed to be used for the start-up costs for the radio programs in Kildin Saami language—not for day-to-day operations.
Posted 18 November 2009; 2:52:37 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Indigenous Issues, Northwest Russia, November09, Russia
(Barents Observer, 16 November 2009) -- Industrial production in the far northern Nenets Autonomous Okrug increased 38.5 percent year-on-year in the first six months of 2009, the latest Barents Monitoring report confirms. That, however, is all thanks to Lukoil’s new Yuzhno-Khilchuyu oil field. The report, which is written by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat’s regional office in the Nenets AO, shows a positive dynamics in regional industrial production. However, other parts of the economy struggle with serious problems. The report shows that the oil-rich region with a population of only 42,300 in the first half of the year had an industrial production growth of 38.5 percent. A major increase in oil production was what made the positive trend. Oil production, including natural gas condensate, increased by more than 35 percent to a total of 9.08 million tons. Also electric power generation increased significantly in the region, with 28.5 percent year-on-year growth to a total of 475.2 million KWH. At the same time, the construction industry in the region showed a serious drop. The volume of work in the regional construction declined by as much as 52.9 percent compared to the same period in 2008. Housing construction dropped by 68.4 percent compared 2008. A total of 127 flats, or 6,300 square meters, was built in January-June 2009. Also investments dropped significantly in the region. According to the report, a total of 19.69 billion rubles were invested in the period, which is a 57.3 percent drop compared with the same period of 2008. The Nenets Autonomous Okrug still remains one regions with the highest salaries in Russia. The average accrued salary in the region was 42,566 rubles, which is up by 8.9% compared to the same period of 2008.
Posted 16 November 2009; 3:53:22 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic and Commerce Issues, November09, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Russia, Siberia / Russia
Icebreaker trapped in Arctic ice, 105 passengers safe
(RIA Novosti, 16 November 2009) -- VLADIVOSTOK - A Russian icebreaker with 105 passengers on board has been trapped in ice during a cruise in the Arctic, a Russian Far East marine cruise official said on Monday. The Captain Khlebnikov will need to wait one or two days to resolve the situation, and the official said the passengers are in no danger. "The icebreaker's crew is waiting for the weather to change and then the ship will resume its course. This will require one or two days. The passengers are in no need of assistance," the spokesman told RIA Novosti. Most of the passengers on board the icebreaker are Brits. A film crew from the BBC is also on board filming material for a documentary called Frozen Earth.
Posted 16 November 2009; 12:26:26 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Arctic Ocean, Circumpolar News, Expeditions, exploration, and field trips, Natural disasters and other problems, November09, Russia, Tourism / Perspectives, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Eurasia highest volcano spills lava down slope
(RIA Novosti, 15 November 2009) -- PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY - A lava flow has started to come down the slope of Eurasia's highest volcano, the Klyuchevskoy, on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East, a local volcanologist said on Sunday. The Klyuchevskoy, which lies 220 miles north of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, is one of the largest active volcanoes in the world and reaches an altitude of 15,584 feet. It erupts about every 2 years. "A small flow of lava has started trickling down the south-eastern slope of the Klyuchevskoy after magma has filled its crater to the brink," said a researcher at the Far Eastern Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. He also said the volcano continued to throw red-hot rocks to a height of 200 meters (over 650 feet). The current eruption started in August after several months of relevant inactivity. Unlike many others, it started slow, but its intensity is rapidly growing. Seismological stations near the Klyuchevskoy register hundreds of small tremors in the area every day. The volcano is dangerous only to tourists at this point, although lava flows and high-altitude ash emissions could soon threaten air traffic in the region. The Klyuchevskoy started a new active cycle with an eruption on February 15, 2007. Volcanic ash from that eruption stretched over 500 km above the Bering Sea at the height of 8.2-8.7 km. There are more than 150 volcanoes on Kamchatka, 29 of them active.
Posted 15 November 2009; 2:23:41 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Environment and Landscape, Far East Russia, North Pacific, November09, Russia
Young people to elect youth minister in Arkhangelsk
(Barents Observer, 11 November 2009) -- Arkhangelsk Oblast is hardly known for its free and fair political elections. Still, the regional administration now intends to let young people in the region themselves elect the next minister of youth affairs. Deputy Governor Yelena Kudryasheva in a press conference this week confirmed that the next minister of youth issues, sport and tourism will be elected by people in the region. The elections will be “as democratic as possible”, Kudryasheva stressed to the reporters. However, the elections will still not be direct and the governor will be able to veto the winner of the vote. As a matter of fact, a number of youth fora all over the region will convene late fall to appoint representatives to a bigger youth congress, which will be where the new minister is elected. People interested in the job are free to register their candidacy by November 16, Pravda Severa reports.
Posted 11 November 2009; 11:45:25 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Autonomy, Sovereignty and Politics, Circumpolar News, November09, Russia
Russian North on shaky ground as permafrost keeps melting
(Bellona, 4 November 2009) -- ST. PETERSBURG - When, in June 2001, a block of flats crumbled in the village of Chersky, in the upper Kolyma River area in Russia’s Far Northeast, it was no terrorist act, nor an explosion of a gas tank that had prompted the accident. In a much more prosaic turn of events, the leaking rusty plumbing and central heating pipes had eaten away at the foundation, which finally gave way. Yet, as a closer inspection later revealed, the main cause was the thawing of the permafrost: The building collapsed because of the global warming.
Posted 6 November 2009; 4:04:01 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Far East / Russia, November09, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Arkhangelsk to become center for higher education in the Arctic
(BarentsObserver, 2 November 2009) -- When the new Northern (Arctic) Federal University opens in Arkhangelsk, it will be Russia’s center for education and research on the Arctic. The main motives for the establishment are protection of Russia’s geopolitical and economic interests in Northern Europe and the Arctic. The Northern (Arctic) Federal University will conduct research and educate specialists within development of natural resources, including oil and gas, timber industry, onshore infrastructures, information and communication technologies and ecology. As BarentsObserver reported, Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev on October 21 signed a presidential decree stating that the State Technical University in Arkhangelsk will be transformed into Northern (Arctic) Federal University. The new university will have a student population of 30 000 students, Pro-rector at the Arkhangelsk State Technical University Yury Kudryashov told BarentsObserver in an interview in Arkhangelsk last week. -The university will have a special role both in securing Russia’s geopolitical interests in the Arctic and in education of specialists for development of oil and gas deposits on the Arctic shelf. According to Kudryashov, a brand new university campus will be built to house the Northern (Arctic) Federal University. The Pomor State University, the Northern State Medical University and the shipyard Sevmash’ own technical college Sevmashvtuz will also be included in the new federal university. Arkhangelsk Oblast is the largest subject in the North-Western Federal District in order of size. Arkhangelsk is called “The gateway to the Arctic”.
Posted 2 November 2009; 7:36:25 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, Northwest / Russia, November09, Russia, Social Issues
Russia will charge ships crossing Northern Sea Route
(Mia Bennett/Arctic Foreign Policy Blog, 1 November 2009) -- In the wake of an announcement by British polar explorer Pen Hadow, leader of the Catlin Arctic Survey, that the Arctic will be ice-free within ten years, Russia announced that it will charge ships a “fair” fee to cross the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Northern Sea Route, the majority of which is Russian waters. Alexasandr Davydenko, head of the Federal Sea and River Transport Agency, actually said, “We are hoping the ice will melt soon.” However, the country still lacks the infrastructure necessary to handle the predicted increase in shipping that will arrive in the coming years, particularly in the port of Murmansk, which would likely serve as a hub. Furthermore, the shipping company Sovcomflot will begin shipping oil through the Northern Sea Route next year. It is rumored that Gazprom will also follow suit. The following is an image taken from the Russian government’s official website on the Northern Sea Route, known as “Sevmorput” in Russian. The labels are for the various seas and straits that the NSR crosses.
Posted 2 November 2009; 12:41:53 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic and Commerce Issues, International, November09, Russia
Number of swine flu cases in Russia's Kamchatka rises to 54
(RIA Novosti, 2 November 2009) --PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY - The number of people confirmed as having the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, in Russia's Far East Kamchatka Territory has grown to 54, local health ministry spokesman said."Thirty seven children and 17 adults have been confirmed as having swine flu in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Elizovsky district," the spokesman said, adding 32 people had light infections and 22 were in a moderately grave condition. Thirty-five people were hospitalized, he said."We have enough medicine and places in hospitals," the spokesman added. The first case of swine flu infection was registered in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on October 21, three days after an infected 11-year-old boy was hospitalized. Five deaths from the H1N1 virus have been so far registered in Russia. Three fatalities were reported in the east Siberian city of Chita, one in Moscow, and another one in the Siberian Krasnoyarsk region. The total number of officially confirmed swine flu cases in the country has reached almost 1,900. Russia's chief sanitary official, Gennady Onishchenko, earlier said the swine flu cases began growing considerably in October, traditionally the time for a seasonal flu outbreak. The country plans to start a swine flu vaccination program in December. According to the World Health Organization, more than 5,700 people have died from swine flu worldwide, and the total number of officially confirmed cases has exceeded 440,000, as of October 25.
Posted 1 November 2009; 9:24:25 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Far East / Russia, Health and wellness, November09, Russia
65 years since the liberation of the Arctic
(BarentsObserver, 23 October 2009) -- These days towns on both sides of the Norwegian-Russian border mark the 65th anniversary of Soviet troops’ defeat over the Wehrmacht's forces in the Arctic. The Petsamo-Kirkenes offensive started October 7th 1944, when Soviet forces started a counter-offensive against the German strongpoint line just 70 kilometers northwest of Murmansk. The German forces were driven back into Norway, and the first Soviet troops crossed the border to Norway on October 18th. On October 25th Soviet troops liberated the Norwegian town of Kirkenes from the German forces. Yesterday the anniversary was marked in the Russian border town of Nikel, with Mayor of Kirkenes Linda Beate Randal as guest. See video from the event on TV21. Murmansk is celebrating the occasion on Saturday with a military procession to the Alesha memorial. The same day Kirkenes is honoring the anniversary with several different events for the local population and the many invited guests from Russia and Norway. Read more about the offensive on Wikipedia or in Major James F. Gebhardt’s detailed book “The Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation : Soviet breakthrough and pursuit in the Arctic, October 1944”. (For a short summary of of Gebhardt's book, scroll to the bottom of the page, to the “Synopsis of Leavenworth Paper 17.”)
Posted 23 October 2009; 7:50:58 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Northwest / Russia, October09, Prizes, awards and recognitions, Russia
(Siku Circumpolar News, 19 October 2009) -- Norway plans to spend 45.6 million EUR on new border stations on the border to Russia and modernize of the border guard service’s headquarters outside Kirkenes, reports the Barents Observer. Sør-Varanger Garrison (GSV), headquarters and training school for the border guard service, will go through major changes over the next three years, the Sør-Varanger Avis reports. Parts of the garrison were built in the 1950’s. Next year will see the start of a new 7.8 million EUR barracks for 200 persons, a new kitchen and a new mess hall. The Sør-Varanger Garrison including the borders stations has about 600 soldiers and officers. Today there are six stations along the 196 kilometers long border, but as of 2013 there will only be two large stations. "The six existing stations were built in the 1950’s and 1960’s. They are out of date, too small and not adapted to our needs now," Major Harald Enebakk at GSV told Sør-Varanger Avis. "The way we operate along the border today, we only need to larger stations in addition to the existing surveillance towers and patrol cabins." Norway is the only country in the Schengen area that uses military soldiers in the border guard service, the Barents Observer notes.
Posted 19 October 2009; 2:42:19 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, International, Norway, October09, Russia
Murmansk declared Arctic gas capital
(BarentsObserver, 15 October 2009) -- Gazprom will make Murmansk the base for its expansion into the Arctic, company CEO Aleksei Miller highlighted at the Murmansk Economic Forum today. The forum, which opened in downtown Murmansk today, has “the conquering of the Arctic” as its slogan and puts prime focus on the development of the huge Shtokman gas field, located about 600 km off the Barents Sea coast. "Shtokman is strategically important for all of Russia," Mr. Miller said in his presentation at the forum. The Shtokman field was also the key component in the new cooperation agreement between Gazprom and Murmansk Oblast signed today. That agreement includes cooperation guidelines for the Shtokman development process, including for the laying of pipelines, construction of the LNG terminal and other facilities. Aleksey Miller after the signing ceremony stressed that Gazprom will build roads and develop infrastructure, establish staff training programmes and seek to take maximum advantage of the regional industrial supply potential. He also stressed that the company will spend significant sums on social projects in the region. The Shtokman field will also result in the gasification of the region, and thus open up for new industrial establishments, Miller said. In the forum session, Miller stressed that Shtokman is a Russian project and that the partnership with foreign companies Total and StatoilHydro will expire after the first field development phase. At the same time, he praised the cooperation model of the project, saying that it should be used also in other offshore projects in Russia.
Posted 16 October 2009; 3:48:24 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Northwest / Russia, October09, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Russia
Yamal plans may overrun Arctic tribe
(UpstreamOnline, 6 October 2009)** -- The Nenets tribespeople of Russia's frozen Yamal peninsula have survived the age of the Tsars, the Bolshevik revolution and the chaotic 1990s, but now confront their biggest challenge—under their fur-bundled feet is enough gas to heat the world for five years. "For them it is fortune, for us terror," said 20-year-old herder Andrei Yezgini, dressed from head to toe in reindeer skin, referring to ambitious plans by state gas monopoly Gazprom to drill the region. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has described Yamal as "the world's storehouse" of gas and oil. Putin jetted into the sparsely populated region within the Arctic circle, 2000 kilometres (1250 miles) north-east of Moscow, in late September to woo foreign partners to develop a quarter of the world's known gas reserves. Experts and the Nenets say industry will damage and pollute the tundra, whose flat marshy terrain switches from marigold russets in summer to thick winter snow and is peppered with disc-like thermokarst lakes and crystal blue waterways. Nenets migrate north to south over 150 kilometres every year, spending only a few days in one place, living off reindeer and fish and lugging their "chums," or tents, kerosene lamps and wood-fired stoves on reindeer-pulled sleighs. "The fact they've found deposits here is catastrophic," said Slava Vanuito, 34.
Posted 8 October 2009; 3:24:41 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, Indigenous Issues, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Resource Issues, Russia, Siberia / Russia
(Barents Observer, 5 October 2009) -- A new Saami textbook for children is published in Murmansk. The publication is sponsored by Shtokman Development. The publication of the new textbook, called Voafskhess (Northern Light), is part of the celebration of the 20 year anniversary of the Kola Saami Association, the oldest Saami organization on the Kola Peninsula, web site B-port.com writes. With regional authorities being unwilling to pay for production of the book, Shtokman Development AG and the International Saami Language Committee sponsored the project. There are about 2000 persons registered as Saami in Murmansk Oblast. Four Saami languages have been spoken among the Saami in the Russian side; Akkala, Ter, Skolt and Kildin Saami. Akkala Saami seems to be extinct as a language, where as below 20 understand or speak Ter Saami. Skolt Saami is spoken by less than 20 individuals in the Russian side, and Kildin Saami is spoken by 300-700 individuals, BarentsIndigenous.org writes.
Posted 8 October 2009; 1:34:50 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, Education and Civil Society, Indigenous Issues, Northwest / Russia, Russia
(Christina Henriksen/Barents Indigenous People, 30 September 2009) -- Saami rights in the Kola Peninsula is the hot topic of the seminar, which takes place in Murmansk on October 1-2 2009. The work towards establishment of a democratically elected political body representing the Saami population in Murmansk oblast is in progress, and this will be presented by the representatives of the Council of Authorized Representatives of the Saami in Murmansk Oblast, elected at the first Saami congress in Olenegorsk last December. The seminar will take place in Polyarny Zory Hotel and the program includes discussion on self-determination for Saami in Murmansk Oblast and self-determination in the Nordic and international perspective. The Saami Council plenary session is scheduled to October 3rd and 4th.
Posted 30 September 2009; 3:04:38 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Indigenous Issues, Northwest / Russia, Russia
Warming up Siberia's cold spot
(Bridget Kendall/From Our Own Correspondent, BBC, 16 September 2009) -- Climate change is having an impact in the vast and remote region of Yakutia in Siberia which, in winter at least, is still the coldest place on earth. Bridget Kendall reports. There cannot be many foreigners who make it as far as Yakutia's top tourist attraction, the Ice Kingdom. The way in is through an unassuming wooden door cut into the hillside, just like the entrance to Bilbo Baggin's hobbit home in The Lord of the Rings. You pass into a dark hallway strewn with straw and blocks of ice, and enter another world. White crystals sparkle. A tunnel shimmers blue as far as the eye can see. In padded silver capes, guides usher us through caverns carved with ice sculptures. One houses the ivory tusks of a mammoth. In another, a young man draped in furs sits on an icy throne. "The Lord of the Cold," our guide tells us. "How long have you been here?" I ask. "Eternity," he answers with stoic humour. In fact, no one could last long in these icy caverns without a break. Just one and a half metres from the surface, the ground is permanently frozen at -10C. Yakutia is home to the permafrost. In midwinter, outside temperatures make it the coldest place on earth - an unbelievable -70C. Luckily September is still fleetingly autumn. The trees seem to fade from green to yellow overnight. In just four days the temperature drops noticeably. The local paper worries that not all heating plants are yet fully repaired and supplied with fuel. The first frosts, it says, will come in days. Evidence of extreme temperatures is visible everywhere. Newer buildings perch on concrete permafrost stilts. The asphalt on the buckled roads erupts into cracks and bumps, while lagged heating pipes snake over head. Untidy spaghetti wires loop from one high-rise to another. You can not bury power lines and pipes in the permafrost. There are also telling signs of what looks like global warming. This July in the underground Ice Kingdom the temperature rose to a dangerously warm -7C. On the surface winter frosts rarely get harsher than -50C.
Posted 30 September 2009; 2:16:22 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Environment and Landscape, Far East / Russia, Russia, Tourism / Perspectives
Canada, Norway, Russia to provide Arctic sea weather warnings
(Agence France-Presse via SpaceDaily, 23 September 2009) -- Canada, Norway and Russia will soon provide navigation and meteorological warnings for ships crossing the Arctic sea, a new maritime route which has opened up due to global warming, a WMO expert said Wednesday. A revised Manual on Maritime Safety Information which is to come into force in 2011 now includes the Arctic as a new zone, divided into five areas where weather warnings would have to be provided. "One of the consequences of the melting of ice, is that we have now several passages, that just 10 years ago were open only for navigation in summertime. Now they are open almost all the year for navigation," said Edgard Cabrera, who heads the WMO's Marine Meteorology and Ocean Affairs division. "That's why it was necessary to establish five new areas," he added. Previously, no country had been assigned to provide weather and navigation information in the Arctic seas. The manual will be launched on Thursday by the World Meteorological Organization, the International Maritime Organization and the International Hydrographic Organization.
Posted 27 September 2009; 1:08:07 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arctic Ocean, Circumpolar News, International, Norway, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Nenets 80th anniversary celebrated!
(Christina Henriksen/Barents Indigenous People, 18 September 2009) -- The 80th anniversary of Nenets Autonomous Okrug was celebrated by locals and guests throughout a whole week filled with various events. Exhibitions and concerts exposed the local Nenets and Komi culture, and culture groups from other regions also took part in the events. The Nenets culture group, Mayimbava, from the village Nelmin-Nos, played a vigorous part in these events, mixing local Nenets culture with Russian pop culture. Governor Igor Gennadyevitch Fyodorov hosted the cultural events, emphasizing the importance of the local indigenous peoples' culture, but also pointed to the prosperity which the oil and gas industry has brought to the region. Among the guests were the President of South Ossetia, Mr Eduard Kokoity, Polar researcher and Member of the State Duma Arthur Nikolayevitch Chilingarov and President of RAIPON and Speaker of the Duma in Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Sergey Nikolayevitch Kharyuchi. A delegation from the Norwegian County of Rogaland, led by the County Mayor Tom Tvedt,visited Naryan-Mar during the week of celebration, as the two counties renewed their agreement of cooperation. In addition to their excursion to the Varandey oil terminal, they also got to experience local food and culture. Nenets Autonomous Okrug was established in 1929, and was originally inhabited by the reindeer-herding Nenets people, which is the indigenous people of the region. Naryan-Mar is the only city, with approximately 20,000 inhabitants, but there are several villages and settlements in the tundra, in which the Nenets is a majority. The Nenets living in the tundra herd reindeer together with the Izhma-Komi, migrating from the inland to the coastline and back again. Russia Today visited the Nenets Autonomous Okrug during the same week. Have a look at their experiences.
Posted 25 September 2009; 12:20:49 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Communities, Indigenous Issues, Northwest Russia, Prizes, awards and recognitions, Russia
Security of peoples of the North
(Arctic Peoples, 11 September 2009) -- At the recent EPPR meeting held in Anadyr, Chukotka, August 17-21, Larisa Abryutina, member of the Executive Committee of RAIPON , presented a list of issues that in her view need to be addressed with regard to the safety of the population and human health and wellbeing in the Russian North. According to Ms. Abryutina, these issues include: Communication of threats and dangerous situations to indigenous populations; Raising public awareness of prevention, preparedness and response to potential emergency situations; Reconstruction of mobile medical units operating in regions of the North; Re-establish network of local weather stations to monitor changes in the environment, for example risks of floods, strong winds and wild forest fires, and communicate it to indigenous communities. Transparency of economic development projects that take place in the North, for example results of impact assessment etc. should be communicated to impacted communities and peoples; Cooperation between authorities and indigenous peoples organisations. Indigenous peoples are not prepared for threats they do not know about (for example nuclear devices placed on their traditional hunting and fishing grounds and reindeer pasture areas) which renders communication and cooperation all the more crucial.
Posted 12 September 2009; 2:14:52 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conferences, meetings, and gatherings, Far East / Russia, Indigenous Issues, International, Russia
German ships successfully make "Arctic Passage"
(Reuters via Yahoo! News, 11 September 2009) -- Two German cargo ships have successfully navigated across Russia's Arctic-facing northern shore from South Korea to Siberia without the help of icebreakers, the shipping company said. The two merchant ships belonging to Beluga Shipping Gmbh were able to make the cost-saving voyage by the fabled Northeast Passage because of the reduction in the polar ice cap due to global warming, the company said. "We are all very proud and delighted to be the first Western shipping company which has successfully transited the legendary Northeast Passage and delivered the sensitive cargo safely through this extraordinarily demanding sea area," Niels Stolberg, president and CEO of Beluga, said in a statement on the company's website. The ships are carrying a cargo of "heavy plant modules," said the company statement, dated Sept 9. The Beluga Fraternity and Beluga Foresight left the Russian port of Vladivostok with cargo picked up in July in South Korea, bound for Holland. They dropped anchor at the Siberian port of Yamburg on Monday, Beluga said. The Northern Sea Route trims 4,000 nautical miles off the usual 11,000-mile journey via the Suez Canal, which Beluga has said would yield substantial savings in fuel costs and reductions in CO2 emissions. The company got Russian authorities' clearance to send the first non-Russian commercial vessels through the route in August. "Russian submarines and icebreakers have used the Northern Route in the past but it wasn't open for regular commercial shipping before now because there are many areas with thick ice," Stolberg told Reuters in an email interview at that time. [See also "German ships blaze Arctic trail" (BBC News, 11 September 2009).]
Posted 12 September 2009; 2:11:54 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Arctic passage open without ice breakers first time in history
(Kirk Melhuish/Atlanta Weather Examiner, 6 September 2009) -- This year's opening marks the fourth time in five years that the Northeast Passage has opened, and commercial shipping companies are taking note. Two German ships recently are the first commercial voyage ever made through the Northeast Passage without the help of icebreakers. The Northeast Passage trims 4,500 miles off the 12,500-mile trip through the Suez Canal, yielding considerable savings in fuel. The voyage was not possible last year, because Russia had not yet worked out a permitting process. With Arctic sea ice expected to continue to decline in the coming decades, shipping traffic through the Northeast Passage will likely become commonplace most summers. The Northeast Passage has remained closed to navigation, except via assist by icebreakers, from 1553 to 2005. The results published in the American Association for the Advancement of Science suggest that prior to 2005, the last previous opening was the period 5,000 - 7,000 years ago, when the Earth's orbital variations brought more sunlight to the Arctic in summer than at present. It is possible we'll know better soon. A new technique that examines organic compounds left behind in Arctic sediments by diatoms that live in sea ice give hope that a detailed record of sea ice extent extending back to the end of the Ice Age 12,000 years ago may be possible (Belt et al., 2007). The researchers are studying sediments along the Northwest Passage in hopes of being able to determine when the Passage was last open.
Posted 8 September 2009; 9:02:06 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Russia
Over 2 tons of poached red caviar seized in Far East
(RIA Novosti, 9 September 2009) -- PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY - Police in Kamchatka in Russia's Far East have seized over two metric tons of poached red caviar early on Wednesday, a police spokesman said. "A vessel carrying 2.2 metric tons of salmon caviar was detained on Wednesday in the Kamchatka River," the source said. The vessel's 25-year-old owner failed to provide documents verifying the legality of the delicacy. A probe into the incident has been launched. During last year's anti-poaching operations, police seized over 61 metric tons of red caviar and 525 metric tons of salmon were seized. A total of 107 vessels were confiscated. Salmon caviar, or red caviar, is not as highly prized as the black caviar from sturgeon.
Posted 8 September 2009; 8:53:41 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, Far East Russia, Fisheries, Flora and Fauna, Laws and legal, North Pacific, Russia
Russian, Alaska Natives find common ground to dance on
(Victoria Barber/The Arctic Sounder via Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 5 September 2009) -- ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Four years of training and research culminated in a trip to the Chukotka, Russia, last month when the Sivulliq Youth Media students filmed Russian dancers for "The Lost Dances," a DVD that will trace the shared traditions of Russian and Alaska indigenous song and dance. "It was exciting, and it didn't hit me until the middle of the week that - wow, we're in Russia," said Denali Whiting, 17. "We've been working and training to do it, so we were ready for it. I felt pretty confident." Whiting, now a senior in high school, first got involved in the project when she was in eighth grade. She was interested in photography and her father heard that a summer workshop in filmmaking was being offered. But what started as "just a summer thing" grew into an international, multiyear project to film "lost" indigenous dance on both sides of the Bering Strait. ... The film touches on the ways that, for the past hundred years or so, indigenous Russians and their Alaska counterparts have helped keep each other's heritage of song and dance alive, despite cultural oppression, forced relocations and political upheaval. Russian groups are closely related to the Alaskans of St. Lawrence Island and used to make regular trips to Kotzebue for trade fairs, where they would share dances. Most of the characteristic dance movements such as walking, hunting and paddling are the same.
Posted 7 September 2009; 11:29:01 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Arts and Artists, Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, Expeditions, exploration, and field trips, Far East / Russia, Indigenous Issues, International, Movies, video and TV, Russia, United States
Better radio communication in Kola Bay
(MBnews.ru via BarentsObserver, 4 September 2009) -- The Murmansk Sea Port is modernizing its radio communication equipment. That will make entries to the busy port safer. It is the company Alvis Plus which has got the contract on the equipment delieveries, MBnews.ru reports. The port of Murmansk is the second biggest in Northwest Russia. It handles major volumes of metal and mineral ore, fish and other goods. It is also used extensively by the Northern Fleet and will be the key port in the development of Russian Arctic hydrocarbon fields.
Posted 4 September 2009; 10:11:59 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic and Commerce Issues, Education and Civil Society, Northwest / Russia, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Barents girl to become paratrooper
(BarentsObserver, 3 September 2009) -- More and more Russian girls are studying at military academies. A girl from Apatity in Murmansk Oblast is the only girl from Northwest Russia to be admitted to the Ryazan Higher School for Paratroopers. 17-year-old Svetlana Sokolova from Apatity is one of twenty girls to have been accepted at the prestigious school, which accepted female student for the first time in 2008, TV Murman reports. According to RIA Novosti, 750 girls and women are studying at the 18 higher military schools that accept female students. This is 336 more than in 2008. More than 77.500 women are doing service in the armed forces, of which 6000 are officers.
Posted 3 September 2009; 10:12:48 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, Russia, Social Issues, Women, Children and Families
The world’s northernmost cash machine
(BarentsObserver, 31 August 2009) -- An ATM machine has been opened in the village of Belushya Guba at the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. That is probably the world’s northernmost. The heavily militarized Novaya Zemlya, the site of dozens of nuclear test detonations in the 1960s and 1970s has got its first ATM machine, Rokfeller.ru reports. The cash machine will be used primarily by the military personnel at the far northern archipelago. The Belushya Guba town is located on the 72th latitude. The population of Novaya Zemlya totals about 2,700 (2002), of which about 2,600 reside in Belushya Guba. According to Wikipedia, a total of 224 nuclear detonations with a total explosive energy equivalent to 265 megatons of TNT were made at the archipelago between 1954 and 1990.
Posted 31 August 2009; 1:27:40 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Economic and Commerce Issues, Northwest / Russia, Russia
Oil spill occurs in Tiksi Bay in Yakutia
(ITAR-TASS, 28 August 2009) -- MOSCOW - There is an oil spill in the Tiksi Bay in Yakutia, a source at the Federal Environmental Supervisory Service told Itar-Tass on Friday with the reference to the service’s Yakutia department. He said the accident occurred at about 6:00 a.m. local time on August 23 as crude was being pumped into storage tanks of the Sakha public utility managing company. The amount of the spill is yet unknown. The bay is being cleaned in order to prevent pollution of high seas.
Posted 31 August 2009; 12:58:47 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, Far East / Russia, Russia
Khanty-Mansiy AO delegation visits Orkneys
(Khanty-Mansi AO press service, 26 August 2009) -- The official delegation of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug returned from Scotland. It had been invited by the Board of the Orkney Islands. Governor of Ugra Alexander Filipenko tasked Chair of the Regional Duma Vasili Sondykov to be the head of the delegation. The other members of the delegation are Deputy Chairman of the Government for information policy Oleg Goncharov and First Vice-President of the Khanty-Mansiysk Bank Alexander Smirnov. The members of the delegation participated in the ceremony of unveiling the Memorial for Russian-British Arctic Convoy to be located on one of the Orkney Islands where the fleet of the anti-Hitler coalition states had been located. About 300 participants of the ceremony were welcomed by Vasili Sondykov, Lord-Lieutenant, Consul General of Russia Sergei Krutikov. In his welcoming speech Chair of the Regional Duma expressed gratitude to people of the Islands for courage and Arctic Convoy for help, rendered to the Soviet Union while World War II. While the visit the members of the Ugra delegation held several working meetings with the Chair of the Board of the Orkney Islands Steven Hagan, representative of the Scottish Parliament Richard Gibson, leaders of structures which are in charge of development of tourism, education, transport, power engineering. They discussed issues of organizing the cooperation in education, use of renewable sources of energy, supplies of high-quality food, seafood and etc. The topic of the development of “mutual tourism” between Ugra and the territory of Northern Scotland was of special interest. The interlocutors exchanged proposals which after the thorough study will possibly turn into documents to develop mutually beneficial cooperation of two northern regions.
Posted 27 August 2009; 3:54:27 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Europe, Expeditions, exploration, and field trips, International, Prizes, awards and recognitions, Russia, Siberia / Russia
(NRK via BarentsObserver, 27 August 2009) -- A small Norwegian sailboat is detained in Russia’s East Siberia Sea by border guards. The Norwegian sailboat and its three crew members have violated Russian law, says press-spokesman in the Murmansk branch of the border guard, Alexei Astaskin to NRK. The crew indented to sail around the North Pole. They started in Vardø, Norway’s easternmost town in the end of July. "They did not go through the mandatory border and customs control in Murmansk port," the border guard spokesman said. Instead they sailed all the way to the Russia's Far Eastern coast. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry has been in contact with the crew. Press-contact in the Ministry, Ragnhild Imerslund, says they have the impression that the case will be solved. "The cooperation with the Russian border guards is working very well," Imerslund told NRK.
Posted 27 August 2009; 2:41:14 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Far East / Russia, International, Laws and legal, Russia
Last strontium battery to be removed
(BarentsObserver, 25 August 2009) -- Next Monday will mark the removal of the last radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) from a lighthouse on the Island of Vaigach. State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Elisabeth Walaas, will go to Vaigach to overlook the removal. Since 1998 Norway has, in consultations with Russian authorities, financed the removal of RTGs and replaced them with environmentally friendly solar cell technology. The Norwegian Government has spent more than $20 million kroner on the RTG removals with the aim to avoid radioactive contamination of the marine and terrestrial environments. Also, it is important to remove the strong radioactive sources from the remote—and unguarded, areas to prevent unwanted access to sources of radioactivity. According to information from the County Governor of Finnmark in Norway, there have been four attempted thefts from lighthouses powered by strontium batteries in the northern areas. The County Governor of Finnmark is the project manager on the Norwegian side, while the removals are coordinated by Rosatom on the Russian side. After removal the radioactive sources from the RTGs are sent to the Mayak plant in the South Urals for long-term storage. The first lighthouses with RTGs to be removed were those near the border to Norway west of the Fishermen’s Peninsula on the Barents Sea coast. Originally there were 180 RTGs in the Barents Region. Half of them were removed before 2006.
Posted 26 August 2009; 12:45:04 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, Environment and Landscape, International, Northwest / Russia, Norway, Russia
Climate change opens Arctic route for German ships
(Erik Kirschbaum/Reuters, 21 August 2009) -- BERLIN - Two German ships set off on Friday on the first journey across Russia's Arctic-facing northern shore without the help of icebreakers after climate change helped opened the passage, the company said. Niels Stolberg, president and CEO of Beluga Shipping GmbH, said the Beluga Fraternity and Beluga Foresight left the Russian port of Vladivostok on the historic and cost-saving journey with cargo picked up in South Korea bound for Holland. The melting of Arctic ice as a result of climate change has made it possible to send Beluga's multi-purpose heavy lift ships along the legendary Northeast Passage, Stolberg said. Beluga got Russian authorities' clearance to send the first non-Russian commercial vessels through the route on Friday. The Northern Sea Route trims 4,000 nautical miles off the usual 11,000-mile journey via the Suez Canal—yielding considerable savings in fuel costs and CO2 emissions, he said. "Russian submarines and icebreakers have used the Northern Route in the past but it wasn't open for regular commercial shipping before now because there are many areas with thick ice," Stolberg told Reuters in an email interview.
Posted 22 August 2009; 11:51:48 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Economic and Commerce Issues, Expeditions, exploration, and field trips, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Kirkenes business participants to study possibilities in Teriberka
(BarentsObserver, 20 August 2009) -- Thirty representatives from the business sector in the Norwegian border town Kirkenes leave for a study tour to the Russian settlement Teriberka, future main base for the Shtokman project. The aim of the trip is to learn more about the possibilities for participation in the development of the village. The participants also hope to tie contacts with possible Russian partners, newspaper Sør-Varanger Avis reports. "We have to be ready the day things start to happen in Teriberka," says communication manager of the Finnmark County authorities Trond Magne Henriksen. "We will not be sitting on the sideline here." As BarentsObserver has reported, Kirkenes sees major business opportunities from the Shtokman project. The town has port facilities and service industries which can supplement the bases on the Russian side of the border. Also Teriberka awaits a major change from a sleepy fishing village to the hub of the world’s biggest offshore gas field. A large part of the visiting group comes from the construction and building sector in Kirkenes, who hopes to get construction contracts when the big work begins. The study tour is organized and financed by Finnmark County authorities and Innovation Norway.
Posted 20 August 2009; 1:28:21 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, Economic and Commerce Issues, Expeditions, exploration, and field trips, International, Norway, Russia
Murmansk getting ready for Economic Forum
(BarentsObserver, 19 August 2009) -- Murmansk is getting ready for this year’s most important event, the first Murmansk International Economic Forum. More than 300 persons have so far registered as participations in the forum, which takes place in Murmansk October 15-17 and focuses on the theme “The Arctic in the 21st century – development strategies”. The aim is to initiate discussions on the economic development strategy of the North, the forum’s web site reads. Several conferences will be covering issues like development of the energy sector, the fishing industry, cross-border cooperation in the Barents region, management of natural resources in the North of Russia. Special attention will be focused on further development of Shtokman gas condensate field. As BarentsObserver reported earlier this summer, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will take part in the forum.
Posted 19 August 2009; 10:29:00 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conferences, meetings, and gatherings, Economic and Commerce Issues, International, Northwest / Russia, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Resource Issues, Russia
(russia-ic.com, 17 August 2009)** -- The Extreme North is inhabited by over 20 peoples and ethnicities, all of them keeping their ancient and interesting culture, an important place in which belongs to useful arts. From olden times the northerners have made clothes, household articles and decorations using natural materials, such as fells of animals and birds, fish skin, wood and plants, and, certainly, carved bone. The folk art of bone carving has been a old tradition with the Chukchi and Eskimos inhabiting the northeast coast of the Chukchi Peninsula and the Diomede Islands. Carving and engraving on bones of polar animals is one of the most striking examples of the inimitable art of the Arctic peoples. Nowadays the art of bone carving has been kept alive only in Alaska, Yakutia and the Chukchi Autonomous District. According to archeological finds the works of Chukchi and Eskimos bone carving existed as far back as the first centuries of Christian era. Bone had been a universal material in the North before metals appeared there. The aboriginal masters used different kinds of bone: walrus tusk, hartshorn, and mammoth bone. The Ancient Bering Sea culture (Old Eskimos culture that existed from the 3rd century BC till the 1st century CE) was peculiar for its animalistic sculpture and household articles made of bone and decorated with relief carving and curvilinear ornamentation. In the following Punuk Period, which lasted till the beginning of the second millennium, sculpture became geometrical, and ornaments changed into rectilineal. The 19th century saw the appearance of narrative bone engraving, originating from petroglyphs of Pegtymel' and ritual wood drawings.
Posted 17 August 2009; 11:24:16 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, Far East / Russia, Russia
Norwegian/Russian cooperation in the Barents Sea
(Rolleiv Solholm/NRK via The Norway Post, 18 August 2009) -- Norway and Russia will this month begin a joint mapping of undiscovered natural resources in the Barents Sea and around the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, DN Energi reports. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), the University of Oslo (UiO) and the Russian Geological Institute (GIN RAS) will participate in the charting mission. In this connection, the UiO has awarded a contract to the Russian research vessel Akademik Nikolay Strakhov which will carry out most of the geological survey for oil and gas as well as general research and mapping. NPD research director Sissel Eriksen says to DN Energi that DPN has cooperated with Russia for some time, and that this latest agreement is a continuation of this cooperation. She underlines that the main task now is charting the area, and not to explore for oil and gas. NPD has earlier estimated that two thirds of Norway's undiscovered resources are to be found in the northern regions.
Posted 17 August 2009; 8:26:51 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, International, Norway, Russia
Reindeer herders battle alcohol on Russia's edge
(Robin Paxton/Reuters, 13 August 2009)** -- ANADYR, Russia - Vladislav Rintytegin is an alcoholic, but he hasn't had a drink in three years. He is leaving on a one-month voyage around Chukotka to help people like him. In Russia's extreme northeast, no village has escaped the scourge of alcohol abuse, he says. "We held an art competition for children. Do you know what they painted?," the 47-year-old Red Cross volunteer asks. "Broken glass, blood, cemeteries. It's all thanks to vodka." Seventy years of Soviet rule failed to subdue Russia's most isolated natives, but "perestroika" proved to be devastating. In the ensuing lawlessness, poachers decimated reindeer herds and unemployment was rife. Suddenly starved of Moscow's subsidies, the indigenous peoples of the far northeast—the Chukchi, Eskimos and Evens—were powerless to stop the collapse of their traditional ways of life. Hunger, poverty and alcoholism, took hold. "People talk now about 'the crisis'. We've been living in a crisis since the 1990s," said Alexandra Khalkachan, 56, a teacher of the Even language in the city of Magadan.
Posted 17 August 2009; 8:05:19 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Far East / Russia, Health and wellness, Indigenous Issues, Russia
Russia revives gold mining in the Gulags
(Robin Paxton/Reuters, 12 August 2009)** -- KUPOL MINE, Russia - Every winter, an ice road is laid across 400 km (250 miles) of tundra to carry supplies to one of the world's most isolated gold mines. There is no other way for heavy machinery to reach Kupol, the $700 million Arctic mine behind a resurgence in Russian gold production after five straight years of decline. "It's one of the harshest climates I've worked in, and I've worked in the Atacama desert in Chile and at 15,000 feet in Indonesia," said Patrick Dougherty, general manager at Kupol. "But I don't get to pick where the gold is." Only South Africa holds more gold than Russia, but Moscow's fragmented industry has struggled to access vast reserves in its inhospitable Far East. The region was first mined in the 1930s by prisoners of the Gulags set up by Soviet leader Josef Stalin. ... Chukotka, a region revived in the last eight years by the $2.5 billion investment of Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich, produced a fifth of Russia's gold in the first half of this year. Gold is the region's passport to growth after Abramovich quit as governor last July. Russia ranked fifth among the world's gold miners last year, between Australia and Peru, with an 8 percent share of output. Production rose 13 percent in 2008, the first increase in six years, and jumped another 25 percent in the first half of 2009. "This was solely due to the commissioning of Kupol," said Olga Okuneva, mining analyst at Deutsche Bank in Moscow. "If other large projects in the Far East start producing gold, this will be a major growth driver for the Russian gold industry."
Posted 12 August 2009; 3:11:50 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic and Commerce Issues, Russia
Russian-US Polar Bear Commission to meet in Moscow in September
(ITAR-TASS, 11 August 2009) -- ANADYR - The first meeting of the Russian-US Polar Bear Commission will meet in Moscow on September 23-25, Itar-Tass learnt on Tuesday from spokesman of the agriculture department of the Chukotka National Area Igor Mikhno. “Russia at the meeting will be represented, apart from officials of the Ministry of Natural Resources, by a Chukotka Peninsula delegation of four people,” Mikhno said. “The meeting agenda includes the following topics: studies of polar bear population, protection of their natural habitat as well as prospects for aboriginal hunting.” The intergovernmental agreement on preservation and use of the Chukotka-Alaska polar bear population was signed in 2000. It contains detailed regulations on possible hunting of polar bears by Chukotka and Alaska ethnic groups. Earlier, a virtually complete ban on white bear hunting was in force in the Russian Arctic, while American natives in Alaska villages, located on the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort seashores, were permitted to hunt. The US administration already appointed its representatives to the Russian-US commission—an administration representative, Jeffrey Hafket, and chairman of the Alaska Native Polar Bear Commission Nanuuq Charlie Johnson. The Russian side includes deputy director of the environmental state policy department of the Ministry of Natural Resources Amirkhan Amirkhanov and coordinator of the Bear Patrol monitoring centre Sergei Kavry from northern ethnic groups. The population of polar bears, put down into the Red Book in Russia 50 years ago, is assessed at around 2,000. The situation is monitored by the All-Russian Environment Institute and the World Wildlife Fund. In the opinion of scholars, the number of polar bears in the world will dwindle down by a third over the greenhouse effect in another 50 years. It is suggested to work out urgently a global programme for rescuing these animals. The coming into force of the Russian-US Agreement does not mean an automatic start of hunting polar bears in Chukotka. The bilateral commission will initially examine a programme for polar bear conservation and will decide the question on quotas. A moratorium is also possible on shooting bears both in Chukotka and Alaska.
Posted 10 August 2009; 11:03:14 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conferences, meetings, and gatherings, Conservation and Wildlife, Flora and Fauna, International, Russia, United States
Finland seeks new connections with Murmansk
(BarentsObserver, 11 August 2009) -- It is now very important to develop transport infrastructure in the North – between Murmansk Oblast and the province of Lapland, Finnish Transport Minister Anu Vehviläinen stressed during her visit to the Russian Arctic city last week. "We have actively developing transport connections between Helsinki and Moscow and Sankt Petersburg, but now it is very important to develop transport infrastructure also in the North, between Murmansk Oblast and the Province of Lapland," the minister said, according to a press release from the Murmansk regional administration. Minister Vehviläinen for the first time visited Murmansk, the site for major planned infrastructure investments over the next years. “The visit of the minister shows that the whole world including Finland is following the development of the Murmansk Transport Hub, the Shtokman project and the trans-border cooperation”, the press release from the regional administration reads.
Posted 10 August 2009; 10:56:48 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, Communities, Finland, International, Nordic Region, Northwest / Russia, Russia
Volcanic ash rises to 23,000 feet
(United Press International via redOrbit, 27 July 2009) -- Volcanic ash reached 23,000 feet above Petropavlovsk in Russia's Far East as the country's northernmost active volcano continued erupting, a geophysicist said. The Shiveluch volcano began erupting in December 2006 and hasn't stopped since. The 10,771-foot volcano is on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The local geophysics service registered more than 170 tremors in the area of the volcano between Saturday and Sunday, a spokesman told RIA Novosti. "Some of (the tremors) were followed by powerful ash bursts and avalanches," the spokesman said. He said the volcanic activity has altered the contour of the volcano, with the crater increasing in size by 50 percent and the slopes having become much steeper. The news service said there are more than 150 volcanoes on the peninsula, 29 of them active.
Posted 27 July 2009; 1:45:48 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Environment and Landscape, Far East / Russia, Natural disasters and other problems, Russia
Take a closer look at Teriberka
(BarentsObserver, 24 July 2009) -- Cows are grazing in the streets and the only decent building is the one currently renovated by the Shtokman Development AG. Welcome to Teriberka, the future hub of the world’s biggest offshore gas field. A two-hour drive towards the northeast from Murmansk will take you to the fishing village of Teriberka. 120 km on a bumpy road takes you across Arctic tundra landscapes to the more rocky seaside where Gazprom and its partners Total and StatoilHydro will build its huge Shtokman gas reception centre and a LNG plant. Teriberka was earlier this year taken out of the Russian border zone, thus opening up for unrestricted access to the area. Still, it took only five minutes after the arrival of a delegation this week to be approached by the FSB. The security officers wrote down the visitors’ passport data and made inquiries about the visit, Barentsnova.com reports. "Like many other old Russian settlements, Teriberka has saved its own atmosphere and a certain charm in spite of Soviet time changes and the recent years desolation. Picturesque costal line, wide sand beach in a bay and projecting rocks make a strong impression on visitors," Aleksey Filin, leader of the Barents Secretariat's Murmansk office told BarentsObserver after this week's visit. About 1400 people live in the town which might soon lose its cozy image to the rough landscapes of the oil gas industry. They will be heavily outnumbered by the about 10000 people who are expected to be involved in the construction part of the project. The permanent field staff is believed to be about 600. New housing quarters and service facilities are to be built near the site.
Posted 24 July 2009; 4:52:46 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Northwest / Russia, Russia, Social Issues, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Russia against arms race in Arctic - foreign ministry
(RIA Novosti, 21 July 2009) -- MOSCOW - Russia is against any arms race in the Arctic, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday. Last week, Denmark announced its plans to establish an Arctic military command and a task force amid conflicting territorial claims by the five Arctic states. Commenting on the development, Andrei Nesterenko told journalists that, "Russia is opposed to the unleashing of an arms race in the Arctic Region and suggests as an alternative the boosting of bilateral cooperation in issues of navigation safety, search and rescue and the prevention of ecological disasters." He added that it was in Russia's national interests to maintain peace and cooperation in the region. The Arctic territories, believed to hold vast untapped oil and gas reserves, have increasingly been at the center of disputes between the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark as rising temperatures lead to a reduction in sea ice. In March, the Russian Security Council outlined Russia's strategy in the region, including the deployment of military, border and coastal guard units "to guarantee Russia's military security in diverse military and political circumstances."
Posted 21 July 2009; 10:45:17 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Arctic Ocean, Circumpolar News, International, Russia
A new geyser has errupted in Russia [video]
(RIA Novosti, 20 July 2009) -- The first geyser to appear in the remote area of the Kamchatka Peninsula since the 1960s has been aptly named “Peculiar”. See also Valley of the Geysers web cam.
Posted 20 July 2009; 10:32:20 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Environment and Landscape, Far East / Russia, Russia
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