Russia plans to dominate Arctic sea routes with the largest fleet of icebreakers

[Judi Lynn]

Saturday, July 31st 2021 - 06:56 UTC

Hoping to develop the Northern Sea Route across the Arctic into an international shipping lane, Russia is building a group of icebreakers to be powered with liquefied natural gas.

Russia already has the world's only fleet of nuclear powered icebreakers but under president Vladimir Putin the objective is that its country's naval fleet, both surface and submersibles, has the power to match those of the United States and China.

Rosatom head Alexei Likhachev said that Russia was now returning to building LNG powered icebreakers and by the end of the year two to four medium sized vessels will be on the production line.

Moscow has named the state nuclear energy company Rosatom as the operator of the Northern Sea Route, and turning it into a global shipping lane as the Arctic ice continues to melt.

More:
https://en.mercopress.com/2021/07/31/russia-plans-to-dominate-arctic-sea-routes-with-the-largest-fleet-of-icebreakers

[patphil]

1. Global warming seems to be our plan to eliminate the need for icebreakers.

[mn9driver]

2. An ice-free arctic coast has been a Russian dream for a long time.

I don’t think the consequences of global warming with respect to the rest of their ecosystem occurred to them until quite recently.