Meanwhile in the Arctic: Russia's multi-billion-dollar mission to own the Arctic. SCARY!
This CBC article is a must read. Eye-opening, scary with lots of jaw-dropping photos shopping the scale of development.
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While Canada's government has banned hydrocarbon exploration on its side of the Arctic and declared climate change a national emergency, such considerations are utterly absent in Russia.
Instead, the emphasis is on getting as many riches out of the thawing permafrost as quickly as possible and capitalizing on the melting sea ice to move them all to Asian markets.
In all, the Kremlin says it's eyeing a staggering $80 billion US worth of new infrastructure and oil and gas development above the Arctic Circle over the next five years and $180 billion US in total over the next three decades.
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Along with the new industrial development, Russia is also aiming to control the shipping lanes in the Arctic — and for that, icebreakers are key.
Russia has already started construction on what it claims will be the world's largest fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, eventually expected to number between 10 and 13 vessels.
The newest icebreaker is the Ural, a beast of a ship that will be able to crunch through sea ice more than three metres thick.
Eight storeys high and 183 metres long, the Ural is powered by two nuclear reactors that won't need to be refuelled for almost seven years, giving the ship almost unlimited endurance.
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/putin-arctic
