Russia's Arctic energy policy

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					Indra Øverland

Russia’s Arctic
energy policy

The Arctic is widely presented as the object of a geopolitical race for natural
resources, oil and gas in particular, with Russia as the main driver. Russia
is often portrayed as taking an expansionist and militarist stance in a mad
dash to grab territory and thereby energy re
Description: It is striking how similar the language and content of this document are to corresponding western policy proclamations on the Arctic. Natural resources are introduced early on in the text as the first of Russia's "national interests" in the Arctic (paragraph 4.a). The second national interest listed is "the preservation of the Arctic as a zone of peace and cooperation" (paragraph 4.b), and the third is "the protection of the unique ecological systems of the Arctic" (paragraph 4.C). The fourth is the promotion of the northern sea route as an international waterway within Russian jurisdiction (paragraph 4.d) - similar to the Canadian perspective on the Northwest Passage.Western coverage of this document, however, has presented it in a different light, heavily emphasizing these few military elements. Many of the reports carried by western media in the wake of the publication of Russia's Arctic strategy bore headlines like "Russia to boost troops to defend Arctic resources";2 "Russia outlines Arctic force plan";3 and "Russia sends troops to frozen north to claim Arctic resources."4 The Canadian foreign minister, for example, responded to the document by stating publicaUy that Canada "will not be bullied" by Russia on Arctic sovereignty.5 One commentator wrote:As the brief examination of the contents of the Arctic strategy above shows, such one-sided western interpretations probably say more about their authors than about Russian Arctic policy. Thus, we need to reassess our understanding of Russia's approach to the Arctic before embarking on a discussion of Arctic energy. The pertinent question concerning Arctic energy resources and Russia is not so much Russia's role as the driving force in a geopolitical race for the Arctic, but the extent to which international oil companies will get the opportunity to participate in that development. After a brief introduction to Russia's Arctic energy resources, I turn to this question below.