Franz Josef Land air bases in the Arctic. A major new base, named the "Arctic Trefoil" for its three lobed structure, was constructed at Nagurskoye. It can maintain 150 soldiers for 18 months and has an area of 14,000 square meters. In 2017, Russian president Vladimir Putin visited the archipelago to protect Russia's interests in the Arctic. The archipelago constitutes the northernmost part of Russia's Arkhangelsk Oblast, located between 79°46′ and 81°52′ north and 44°52′ and 62°25′ east. It is situated north of Novaya Zemlya and east of the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Located within the Arctic Ocean, Franz Josef Land constitutes the
Retreat of glaciers since 1850 1977 and 1995. In the Novaya Zemlya archipelago north of Russia, research indicates that in 1952 there was of glacier ice along the coast. By 1993 this had been reduced by 8% to of glacier coastline. In Greenland, glacier retreat has been observed in outlet glaciers, resulting in an increase of the ice flow rate and destabilization of the mass balance of the ice sheet that is their source. The net loss in volume and hence sea level contribution of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) has doubled in recent years from per year in 1996 to per year in 2005.