Russia Just Laid Claim to More Arctic Territory

Moscow is planning to expand further into the Arctic in a move to counter growing Western threats in the region, Russia's Navy chief has said.

No country owns the geographic North Pole or the Arctic Ocean surrounding it. The eight Arctic states which include Russia, the U.S. and Canada, are limited to a 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off their coasts, despite their continental shelves lying beyond the EEZ.

Russia first made a claim for an expanded Arctic boundary back in 2001 due to the untapped oil and gas reservoirs in the Arctic seabed, but this was rejected by the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

Moscow resubmitted claims in 2015 and 2021, proposing that its continental shelf would consist of almost 70 percent of the Arctic Ocean, overlapping EEZs of other Arctic countries such as Denmark and Canada.

Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov suggested that Moscow would make an even firmer push for the territory, in an address to the the Arctic Forum in St. Petersburg, because of "the expansion of NATO and the aggressive policy of the collective West towards Russia."

President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has worsened ties between Russia and the West, with tensions threatening to spill over into the Arctic region, where in February 2023, the U.S. National Guard held cold weather drills. The U.S. government-wide Arctic strategy said in October 2022 said the war had "raised geopolitical tensions in the Arctic" between Moscow and the West.

Without mentioning the war in Ukraine, Yevmenov said the Arctic region was crucial for Russian national security where there was "an increase in the foreign military presence" amid competition for access to its resources.

Russia's national interests included "the development of the Russian Arctic zone as a strategic resource base, and its rational use, including the full-scale development of the continental shelf outside the 200-mile exclusive economic zone."

This would ensure "the functioning of the Northern Sea Route as a national transport communication," he told Russian and foreign politicians on December 7, according to a transcript on the Russian Defense Ministry website.

Yevmenov headed Russia's Northern Fleet between 2015 and 2019. During this time Moscow strengthened its military capacities in the Arctic with new submarines and surface vessels. Also, new bases were built in the remote Arctic archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and New Siberian Islands, while existing regional bases were modernized, Arctic news outlet the Barents Observer reported.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report published in January 2023 that Moscow was increasing its hybrid tactics in the Arctic.

The think tank said that Russia's military interests in the Arctic are mostly defensive, and include protecting its second-strike sea-based nuclear deterrent by the Kola Peninsula, its oil and gas megaprojects like the Yamal LNG and Vostok Oil ventures, and the vital Northern Sea Route.

Russia's military bases, airfields and Northern Fleet in the Murmansk region are part of its investment in the region and the think tank warned that Moscow may resort to a limited incursion into Norway or Finland in the event of war between NATO and Russia.

Meanwhile, last week, Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom presented its two new RITM-200 reactors that will power the future Chukotka icebreaker ship. This was part of a push to develop the northern maritime route between Asia and Europe to ship its sanctioned hydrocarbons.

Newsweek has contacted the U..N Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf for comment by email.