The Ministry of Defense and the FSB have developed a plan to counter provocations on the Northern Sea Route

Russia has prepared a plan to counter possible provocations along the Northern Sea Route, the Defense Ministry newspaper Voennaya Mysl reported. As the newspaper writes, provocations are not ruled out, given the incompleteness of the legal registration of the rights of the Arctic countries to the shelf resources of the Arctic, as well as statements by non-regional states about the need to use the Arctic resources by the whole world.

The plan was developed by the Ministry of Defense, the FSB and “economic entities in the Arctic.” It includes “the build-up of reconnaissance and destruction assets in the archipelagos and the coast of the Arctic Ocean, an increase in the intensity of aviation flights by the RF Armed Forces and the Russian FSB.” The authorities plan to monitor the ships and vessels of the US Navy and carry out “practical actions by forces and means to refuse unauthorized passage of the strait zones in the waters of the Northern Sea Route.”

As stated in the article of the newspaper of the Ministry of Defense, deliberate pollution of the marine environment is not excluded, for example, by dumping oil products or other chemical hazardous substances of Russian production to accuse Russia of an irresponsible attitude towards the preservation of the environment. “As possible options for action, there may be a passage of ships (vessels) of the US Navy: a transit passage along the entire water area of ​​the Northern Sea Route from west to east or in the opposite direction, a passage from the Bering Strait to the New Siberian Islands or from the Barents Sea to arch. Severnaya Zemlya, simultaneous entry of two ships from the western and eastern directions, accompanied by maneuvering in the immediate vicinity of the places of deployment of troops (forces) of the Northern Fleet and the Eastern Military District, ”the publication says (.pdf).

The length of the Northern Sea Route is more than 3 thousand nautical miles. It connects the Barents Sea and the Bering Strait and is the shortest route between Europe and Asia.

Leonid Uvarchev