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
Pay-Khoy Ridge do not have permanent population. The closest permanent settlements are Amderma and Ust-Kara. The ridge is located in tundra, to the north of the tree line. The Pay-Khoy ridge forms a curved orogen together with the Ural Mountains, the Vaygach Island and the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. The Pay-Khoy and Novaya Zemlya are younger than the orogeny that formed the Ural mountains. They were formed during the Cimmerian Orogeny between the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. Pay-Khoy Ridge The Pay-Khoy ridge () is a mountain range at the northern end of the Ural Mountains. It lies within the Nenets Autonomous Okrug.