One of the major challenges of the 21 st century is without doubt climate change. For most countries, global warming poses a serious threat. Russia, however, has identified opportunities when it comes to the changing climate and the gradually decreasing icecap of the Arctic region. Moscow’s Arctic Strategy is intended to provide an edge for the Eurasian country in the areas of energy and defence while at the same time promoting the Northern Sea Route as an alternative shipping route. Russia has vast oil and gas reserves in the Arctic. In terms of technically recoverable energy, the region contains as much as 90 billion barrels of oil and 47 trillion cubic meters of natural gas of which the Russian zone has the largest share, 48 billion barrels of oil and 43 trillion cubic meters of gas respectively. It amounts to 14 percent of its oil and 40 percent of […]