Everything points at it. The Arctic is the target in the Kremlin’s gunsight. From legal moves to enforce an alleged right on the Pole, the massive military escalation in the ice, the clear signs of foreign policy, everything indicates that the next war will be over in Russia the 80th parallel.
The last shiver to the northern countries came with the words of Admiral Vladimir Korolyov, commander of the Russian Northern Fleet. “We plan to use torpedoes to make openings in the ice, so submarines could surface and fire missiles in the High Arctic,” he said during a meeting at the training center of the fleet. But against whom should Russian submarines shoot in the middle of polar ice?
The answer, in a sense, has been given by the foreign ministers of Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, in a joint statement published, which seems rather strange, on the countries’ main newspapers: “There is increasing military and intelligence activity in the Baltics and in our northern areas. The Russian military is challenging us along our borders. Russia’s actions are the biggest challenge to the European security, […] contributing to sowing discord between nations, and inside organizations like NATO and the EU”.
Mecca
Moscow is tempted by the Arctic. This is not a secret. Indeed, perhaps we are already a step further, if today no longer need to invent some lame excuse to justify the militarization of the Arctic. Dmitry Rogozin, the outspoken Russian Deputy Prime Minister and delegate to politically incorrect affairs (he is Putin’s special representative for the Transnistria, as well newly appointed head of the new Commission on Arctic affairs) tweeted bluntly: “The Arctic is the Russian Mecca”. He was not talking about pilgrimages.
A detail: he sent this tweet when just landed on Svalbard, the Norwegian Arctic archipelago. Sources of the Foreign Ministry of Oslo have indicated that Rogozin is not welcome in their own land, as the Deputy Prime Minister can boast of being one of the first members of the American and European black list due the Ukrainian crisis. Another detail: in a photo tweetted from the Russian base in the Arctic, from usual the pole with the signs of the distances from cities, a green arrow points the 5,040 kilometers from Sevastopol, annexed peninsula of Crimea. A disturbing clue.
The next war
Russia is getting serious at the Pole. The militarization of the Arctic region is reaching unprecedented levels. And worrying. Large scale military drills, a strong political stance and constant provocations on the limit (and beyond) the airspace of other countries of the North have only one purpose, to test western cohesion in case of a response. In this sense, the experience of South Ossetia, the Crimea and the Donbass could not be other than general tests. Who gave signals of Europe and America both unprepared.
Putin has given the start to a multi-annual program to restore a number of military bases in the Russian far north. By the end of this year 10 airfields, in disuse since the days of the USSR, will come back in use, bringing the total number of bases in the far north to 14. By the end of 2016 will then be finished the Nagurskoye airfield on the Franz Joseph Land, the northernmost of all. This bas alone is worth an investment of $ 130 million. Meanwhile, in December has been completed the creation of a military super-district, with the entry into operation of the Arctic Command, which controls all the air, land and sea force at the Pole.
All this while proceeding through the courts before the UN Commission on the limits of continental shelf to have the claims on the Pole – the largest reservoir of untapped natural resources – recognized.
It is like Russia submits its requests to the UN committee with a Kalashnikov in hand. And the strong temptation to use it.
@daniloeliatweet
Everything points at it. The Arctic is the target in the Kremlin’s gunsight. From legal moves to enforce an alleged right on the Pole, the massive military escalation in the ice, the clear signs of foreign policy, everything indicates that the next war will be over in Russia the 80th parallel.
