According to the newspaper The Kommersant, Russia is planning on making its Arctic region the country’s main strategic base by 2016.  And how does it plan on doing this?  By creating Arctic troops whose sole purpose will be maintaining the security of Russia’s section of the Arctic Ocean.

A posted document on Russia’s Security Council’s official website states that Arctic troops will be deployed to the area in order for Russia to uphold its security according to whatever political and military situation may arise.  As the ice in the region continues to melt and there is more of a struggle to maintain control over the oil and gas reserves in the Arctic, Russia is planning on doing everything it can to make sure that it doesn’t lose its piece of the pie.

Artur Chilingarov, Russia’s presidential envoy for international cooperation in the Arctic and Antarctic told Reuters that, “Russia’s national interest lies there. We have worked in the Arctic and we are working there now. There is of course (competition)…But we are not going to stand still,”

Russia will respect any international treaties when it comes to the Arctic, Chilingarov said, and even wants to cooperate with the other countries with a stake in the Arctic.  But Russia has a special claim to sections of the Arctic that are flanking to Russia’s borders.

“Look at the map. Who is there nearby? All our northern regions are in or come out into the Arctic.  All that is in our northern, Arctic regions. It is our Russia.”

According to international law in regards to the Arctic, the five Arctic countries – United States, Canada, Norway, Russia and Denmark (Greenland) each has a 320 km economic zone north of each of their borders.  Russia is asserting its rights to a larger area that it’s 320 km, stating that the actual seabed underneath the Arctic is an extension of the Siberian continental shelf.

While those skeptical of the Russian claim believe that it is simply a power play by the country to gain back some of its international power, Chilingarov is very clear that the claim is based on science.

“Based on scientific observations, we will prove our connection to that shelf (and) we will prove it in the framework of international norms and laws.”