MOSCOW. Russia has achieved a “record” volume of cargo traffic through its Northern Sea Route, a shipping route that cuts travel times between Europe and Asia and helps Moscow redirect trade amid sanctions on Ukraine as Arctic ice melts.
Before Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin had prioritized the use of the Arctic route. Russia has developed a fleet of eight nuclear icebreakers.
Russian President Putin will address the Arctic Development Forum in the northern Russian port of Murmansk on Thursday.
Competition for Arctic resources is intensifying as climate change opens up previously ice-covered sea lanes. Moscow has invested heavily in the Northern Sea Route.
The route cuts the transit time for cargo ships by 15 days compared to the Suez Canal, but it faces many logistical problems.
Vladimir Panov, special representative for Arctic development at Russia’s Rosatom nuclear agency, said on Wednesday that the route would see a “new record” in transport in 2024.
“We ended 2024 with a new record for the Northern Sea Route.” “We have transported 37.9 million tons (of cargo),” Panov said.
He said Moscow had seen “shippers redirecting their cargo through Asia in the summer and autumn.”
Climate change has allowed Russia’s nuclear icebreakers to navigate the entire area of its eastern coast, sometimes with difficulty.
“For the first time in two years, we have started year-round operation of icebreakers in the waters of the Northern Sea Route,” Panov said. .
Global competition for Arctic resources has intensified, and this is another area where Russia disagrees with the West.
Russian Foreign Ministry official Vladislav Maslennikov accused the West of having a “provocative” Arctic policy.
“Under the guise of environmental protection and combating climate change, we are actually seeing attempts at unfair competition,” he said.
But despite its lofty ambitions, Moscow still faces a series of logistical problems along the way, which The volume of cargo passing through it is falling far short of what Russia had hoped.
37.9 million tons is still far short of the Kremlin’s target. In 2018, Putin unveiled ambitious plans for the Arctic, hoping to move 80 million tons annually through the Northern Sea Route by 2024.
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