Cap of the North Cap of the North The Cap of the North ("Nordkalotten" in Norwegian and Swedish, or "Pohjoiskalotti" in Finnish) consists of the counties Finnmark, Nordland and Troms in Norway, Norrbotten County in Sweden, Lapland/Lappi Region in Finland and Murmansk Oblast in Russia. This area is roughly equal to the parts of Fennoscandia (including the Kola Peninsula in Russia) lying north of the Arctic Circle. The region has a subarctic climate and is home to the majority of the Sámi people. Historian Per Guttorm Kvenanger has criticized the term "Nordkalotten" for displacing the overlapping term Sápmi and hiding the "Sami character" of
Arctic policy of Russia Russia built an extremely large military base on the island of Alexandra Land, expanding on an already established airbase called Nagurskoye, on the 80th parallel. The new complex is made of multiple inter-connected buildings and can house a company of 150 soldiers for up to 18 months without the need of re-supply. Russia's economic interests in the Arctic are based on two things - natural resources and maritime transport. The Northern Sea Route, in use for centuries and officially defined by Russian legislation, is an Arctic shipping lane that stretches from the Barents Sea to the Bering Strait through Arctic