Atle Staalesen

Vladimir Yevmenov for years worked as the deputy of Murmansk governor Andrei Chibis. The former interior ministry leader now returns to the post as Mayor of the strategically important Northern Fleet city Severomorsk.

It will help provide security for logistics along the Arctic coast, Russia's Minister of Emergency Situations (Emercom) said during a recent visit to the far northern town.

The Nordic country that has numerous cables and pipelines connected to its coasts teams up with allies in a bid to strengthen subsea communication security.

On stage in the COP29 side event was Moscow’s climate envoy and former Chechen prime minister Ruslan Edelgeriev together with the daughter of Chechen militant leader Ramzan Kadyrov and daughter of Azerbaijan strongman Ilham Aliev. In the panel was also Erik Solheim, the former Norwegian government minister and leader of the UN Environment Programme.

'It is of paramount importance that we are able to receive and move allied forces across the Nordic region as rapidly and efficiently as possible,' says Norway's Defence Minister Bjørn Arild Gram after signing agreement with Nordic colleagues.

Russia is developing a fleet of naval icebreakers. But none of them took part in the Northern Fleet's expedition that this fall experienced great difficulties in navigating across the Northern Sea Route.

Several of the 30 tankers that this week were added to London's sanction list have shipped Russian oil across the Arctic.

A map showing the area of the Northern Sea Route above Russia. (iStock)

While a Russian reefer previously suspected of espionage requested emergency assistance off the coast of the Nyhamna gas processing and exporting facility, a Chinese special cargo vessel criss-crossed the same waters.

The training facility in northern Norway will have the capacity to house several hundred NATO soldiers, Norwegian Defence Minister Bjørn Arild Gram says.