Egor Borisov: There shouldn’t be sanctions in respect of the Arctic
On the eve of a major international forum Arctic Circle in Reykjavik, president of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) Egor Borisov told the EastRussia.ru how neglected areas of the Far North acquire a "second wind", why it’s necessary to cooperate with Alaska and how you can significantly shorten the way from the Asia-Pacific region to Europe.
- Egor Afanasyevitch, Yakutia has been actively involved in the implementation of the state policy of the Russian Federation on Arctic issues. Please, tell us what changes have occurred in the Arctic zone of the country in recent years in general and in particular in Yakutia?
- The country's and the republic’s leadership pay close attention the Arctic in several directions. Firstly, our the extremely cold Arctic territory in Yakutia are populated, in contrast to the rest of the world. Thousands of people live and work there, they are in need of comfort, warmth and products, education and medicine. Therefore, we must develop the industry there, build infrastructure, provide transport access. It's a whole bunch of problems, and it is not so easy to be untangled. Second, the Arctic is the rich region, which has enormous potential of minerals and hydrocarbons that should be developed. In addition, there is a special issue of transport logistics associated with the Northern Sea Route (NSR). Namely the development of the Northern Sea Route creates working conditions in the Arctic. This is the shortest route from Asia to Europe, which was developed in due time, and then was abandoned. Now it is necessary to revive it again. Perhaps, these are the three main points that require our attention in the Arctic.
