Arctic Circle level, although in mountainous regions there is often no direct view of the true horizon. Only four million people live north of the Arctic Circle due to the severe climate; nonetheless, some areas have been settled for thousands of years by indigenous peoples, who today make up 10% of the region's population. Tens of thousands of years ago, waves of people migrated from eastern Siberia across the Bering Strait into North America to settle. The largest communities north of the Arctic Circle are situated in Russia, Norway and Sweden: Murmansk (population 307,257), Norilsk (175,365), Tromsø (71,295), Vorkuta (59,231) and Kiruna
Arctic policy of Russia Siberian climate and climate change, as well as gather information about the Russian continental shelf. The head of the expedition, who is also the chairman of the European Arctic Commission, expressed confidence that Russia will gather the evidence needed to confirm its claim to additional parts of the Arctic shelf. Current research stations under construction include one on Samoylovsky Island, which should be completed by mid-2012 and will focus on researching shelf zone permafrost, and one on the Svalbard Islands, which will be finished in 2013 and will focus on geophysical, hydrological, and geological research. Over the summer of 2015,