History of Franz Josef Land for a national park covering northern Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land were launched in the 2000s. When the Russian Arctic National Park was established on 15June 2009, Franz Josef Land and Victoria Island were excluded. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the archipelago in 2010, describing it as a "giant rubbish tip". By 2011 the national park had been expanded to include Franz Josef Land in a move to better accommodate tourism in the archipelago. From 2012, Russia commenced a 1.5 billion ruble, three-year clean-up project to remove more than 100,000 tonnes of waste which had accumulated during the Soviet
Environmental inequality in Europe among Indigenous people around Novaya Zemlya which may be linked to nuclear testing. Locals have nicknamed the islands "the archipelago of death". In 2015, 14.9 million tons of oil were produced from Komi Republic, an increase of 5.4% over 2014 production. The Komi Republic, which lies in northeastern European Russia and is home to the Indigenous Komi people, has 152 hydrocarbon fields, of which 87 produce oil and gas; 65 are currently in commercial production, and 22 are designated as experimental. In 1994, a pipeline fractured near the city of Usinsk, Komi Republic. According to Komineft (Komi Oil) and local