Igor Chernyshenko: "Increased attention to Arctic has emerged in last ten years"

Russia is an Arctic country, but there is no law that would regulate all the legal acts of the Arctic, in fact. A guest of the ‘Tribune’ program, the representative of the Murmansk Region in the Federation Council, Igor Chernyshenko, told Vestnik Kavkaza about whether there is a need for such a law.

- Why has there been such a wide interest in the Arctic in recent years?

- The issue of the Arctic has been relevant to Russia for centuries. There have been Pomors and scholars and explorers. Russia has the longest border with the Arctic area. The Arctic is a small ‘cap’ around the North Pole. Its boundaries are outlined in different ways, sometimes it is the Arctic Circle, or the coast of the northern seas.

Russia has always been actively presented there, but increased international attention to the Arctic has emerged in the last 7-10 years. There are many reasons for this. On one hand, there is the relative warming, the bigger areas of the northern seas have opened to navigation. On the other hand, there are hydrocarbon reserves that have been explored both practically and theoretically on the shelf of the northern seas.

The ecology of this part of the globe provokee increasing interest and attention. In addition, it is a zone of habitation of many indigenous peoples, both for us and abroad. The Arctic is also a good fishing ground. Fish are caught there, and many other species. There are a lot of minerals.

- What hinders the adoption of a law of the Arctic, and what should be the main provisions of this law, in your opinion?

- In 2008 we adopted the basic directions of the development of Russia in the Arctic area. In 2013 the president signed the Strategy of Development of the Arctic Zone by the Russian Federation until 2020. These basic documents allow Russia to move in this direction. Then there was a certain period when it was not clear what the Russian Arctic is. Finally, two years ago there was a decree that determined what the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation is in terms of its borders, four subjects of the Federation were included there. They are the Murmansk region, the Nenets Autonomous Region, the Chukotka District and Chukotka. Another three or four subjects were included as separate municipalities, these are islands.

Six months later, there was the program of socio-economic development of the Arctic zone by the Russian Federation, approved by the Government. It has had no funding for a while, it is not registered in the budget and it is of an analytical, indicative character and defines some parameters for the development of the Arctic. Last year, the Day of the Polar Explorer was introduced.

The period of acceptance of various legal acts, from the presidential to the parliamentary, had an active saturation. We thought and discussed much about who would focus on the Arctic in terms of public administration. First, the Regional Development Ministry was engaged in it, and then when it was abolished its functions on the Arctic shifted to the Ministry of Economy.

In February of this year the State Commission for the Development of the Arctic was created, led by the Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin, it is divided into a number of working groups, commissions. It is actually a government body of all the Arctic issues. The Federation Council has an expert advisory body on the Arctic, which a few months ago in Irkutsk held a meeting with Valentina Matviyenko, where the issue of further development of the Arctic, as well as the content, the appropriateness of adopting the law that you asked about were discussed.

A meeting of the expert council was held in Omsk recently, there was an exhibition ‘Russian technology for the Arctic.’ There, too, this topic was under discussion.

Today we have the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation and there are bodies that deal with it. All regions that are included in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation held forums on their sites, and they have a program for the further promotion of the Arctic direction.

- In your opinion, is the Arctic law needed?

- I support it. The Federation Council held parliamentary hearings on the content of the concept of the law and its necessity. The report, as a rule, is made by the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Alexander Zapolskiy. He also supports the idea that the move towards the creation of this law makes sense. The law should take into account the economic incentives of the Arctic territory, social development, measures relating to the provision of the life of indigenous peoples of the North and environmental safety measures.

Today there are two approaches to this law. According to one approach, some experts suggest to make it a framework, that means, to make a law which actually continues to have the conceptual approaches to the Russian zone that have already been set out in the strategy. The second, to which I adhere, is that we need a more specific law that would allow us to work directly in the promotion of certain tasks for the development of the Arctic. In the last week of November at the Federation Council there will be a joint meeting of the State Commission on Arctic issues headed by Dmitry Rogozin and our expert council, inviting not only the governors, not only experts, but also, perhaps, the heads of municipalities located in the Arctic zone. The central theme will be a discussion of the adoption of this law.

Two or three variants of the law on the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation have already been developed. I spoke about it at the Federation Council, in the bowels of the Committee on Problems of the North 15 years ago. Two-three years ago, the Ministry of Regional Development also had two versions of the law that were proposed for preliminary discussion, but they did not continue to further examination. If next month there will be an expanded Council with the participation of the deputy members of the committee, a specific working group could be established to develop this law. The law is needed if there are be any mechanisms for economic and financial security.

Today, 30-40% of the deposits of hydrocarbons on the sea shelves are developed. The Murmansk region feels very confident about the Arctic coordinates. The port of Murmansk is the only deep-water, ice-free port, where historically the nuclear icebreaker fleet is located, which was previously a part of the marine shipping company, it is now a part of the nuclear fleet ‘Rosatom’. A great program of renovation of its icebreakers has been adopted. Many of them, due to the length of service should be immobilized, and the first AL-60 nuclear-powered icebreakers ‘Arktika’, ‘Ural’ and ‘Siberia’ have been being constructed already.

- The housing of one of them is almost finished. Has ‘Ural’ being established already?

- Yes, the first has already had a  sufficiently large reserve. There is the second one as well. The third is in the pipeline, there are financial elements. In addition, now we are talking about designing a new, even more powerful nuclear icebreaker ‘AL-120’, which will provide wider aisles in the ice.

If we talk about these nuclear icebreakers, they should ensure, firstly, the use of the Northern Sea Route. Secondly, they must ensure  the good work of Arctic sites such as ‘Yamal LNG’ and Obetovskya Bay, where now there are great prospects for the extraction of gas and oil condensate. Murmansk in this regard feels very confident. The governmental decision on the development of the Murmansk transport hub is associated with the release of the Arctic. In early October our governor Marina Kovtun reported to the President about the development of the region and proposed forming a higher education University of the Arctic.

The exploration of the Arctic requires special training of personnel who have to work on offshore installations, go to sea, engage with environmental issues and issues of safety of navigation in the northern seas. There is support for the president, there is his proposal to take this problem into work. We, too, feel very hopeful about our young people who will be able to study at the University of the Arctic, which will be based at the former Higher Nautical School. The Murmansk region is conducting a Business Week. In November the Business Week will be dedicated to the further development of the Arctic vector in the Murmansk region.

- Igor Konstantinovich, within our program we have the title ‘From Kamchatka Territory to the Kaliningrad Region’, in which we usually ask our guests how attractive their particular region of the Russian Federation is in terms of domestic tourism. The Murmansk Region is a northern region. What are the destinations, tourist spots of the area?

- Any region of Russia from Kamchatka to the Kuban can offer many attractive tourist and other attractive facilities. The Murmansk region is not far from Moscow, from Leningrad, from the European side, two hours by plane, and you can see the conservation areas. We have the Sami indigenous people. There are special mazes, where there are historic sites closed with glass covers, rock paintings, icons. The second direction is exotic northern fishing. Very big salmon are caught there, and other fish. The third area is the Hero-City of Murmansk. Next year we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Murmansk. There is also military history, there are so many memorials, many places where fierce fighting took place.

We are now actively promoting the project ‘Arctic Gate’. This is a cruise of foreign and Russian tourist liners around Scandinavia with stops in Murmansk, with access to the beach.

The Murmansk Region offers very different tourism products. We are considering this route, where large ships and liners can moor to the north of the island with a landing, perhaps even on Novaya Zemlya. The Murmansk Region has much to offer as one of the regions of the Russian Federation located on the Arctic Circle. There are not many such regions. To visit the Arctic, have a fishing tour, to visit a Sami graveyard, eat our northern berries, this is a very interesting case, I would recommend visiting the Murmansk Region and getting to know this interesting area of our Russia.