Russian Policy On The Arctic Continental Shelf

Abstract

This chapter presents a brief discussion on the important topic of Russian policy on the Arctic continental shelf. It discusses few brief words about Russian policy in the Arctic, including development of the Arctic shelf. From the very beginning of its history Russias Arctic strategy was pretty straight forwardto discover what was available and to keep what was found. Russian Arctic policy was built on the routine activity in its backyard. Soviet Russia had been regularly collecting polar data since the early 1950s. Therefore Russia is probably the country that has obtained the most precise polar data and this is not only on the littoral spaces. Russian aviation and naval forces were collecting the scientific data on the pole during each flight or deployment. A key provision of Russias Arctic strategy is that the protection of Arctic resources will become critical in the world military balance. Keywords: Arctic continental shelf; Russian policy