Within the past few months there has been much concern over not only Russia’s position on the Arctic, but the force with which the country said it will protect its interests in the region.  Several reports coming out of Russia on its handling of the Arctic conflict in the future were taken to mean that the country was fully prepared to go to war and would be increasing its military presence in the area in preparation.

The Russian president’s envoy to the Arctic, Artur Chilingarov, has cleared up any confusion over Russia’s position, saying during a news briefing that all the talk of Russia and a war in the Arctic wasn’t true. While Russia has every intention of protecting its interests in the Arctic, it is not planning on, nor does it foresee, going to war over it.

“Nobody’s going to war with anybody,” he said. “We don’t need to talk about this. We will defend our economic interests but I don’t see a conflict in the near future.”

Chilingarov also denied that Russia is planning on increasing its military presence in the Arctic, despite recent reports that it would be stationing more troops in the north by 2020.

While speaking in Moscow he told reporters, “We will build up our scientific, economic and research interest in the Arctic, but not our military.”

Chilingarov headed the controversial planting of the Russian flag on the Arctic seabed in, 2007, an act that some saw as the beginning of Russia’s aggressive stance on the issue of Arctic rights.

Wanting to make Russia’s goals crystal clear, Chilingarov repeatedly said that for Russia it was all about economic growth.

”I’ll say again that Russia’s interests in the far north, in the Arctic Ocean, are tied to the region’s economic potential for Russia: gas, oil, gold, diamonds,” he said. “These are all in Russia’s economic interests and we will protect them.”