Russia has hailed “record” cargo shipping volumes through its Northern Sea Route, which cuts travel time between Europe and Asia as the Arctic ice melts and helps Moscow redirect trade due to sanctions over Ukraine.
Before launching Moscow's Ukraine offensive, President Vladimir Putin had made use of the Arctic route a priority, with Russia developing a fleet of eight nuclear icebreakers.
The Russian leader is due to address the issue later on Thursday at a forum on Arctic development in the northern Russian port of Murmansk.
Competition over Arctic resources has heated up as a warming climate opens up previously iced-up sea lanes.
Moscow has invested heavily in the Northern Sea Route.
The path cuts travel time for cargo ships by 15 days compared to sailing via the Suez canal, but has faced a litany of logistical problems.
Vladimir Panov, a special representative for Arctic development at Russia's Rosatom nuclear agency, told AFP on Wednesday that the route saw a "new record" of traffic in 2024.
"We finished 2024 with a new record for the Northern Sea Route. We carried 37.9 million tonnes (of cargo)," Panov said.
Panov said Moscow has seen "shippers in summer and autumn redirect their cargoes" via the route to Asia.
Climate change has meant Russia's nuclear icebreakers can pass along its entire northern coast, though at times with difficulty.
"In the last two years, for the first time we have switched to year-round operation of icebreakers in the waters of the Northern Sea Route," Panov said.
Global competition for Arctic resources has heightened and is another area in which Russia is at odds with the West.
Vladislav Maslennikov, an official at Russia's foreign ministry, accused the West of having a "provocative" Arctic policy.
"Under the guise of protecting the environment and combating climate change, we are witnessing ongoing attempts at de facto unfair competition," he told AFP.
But while flouting high ambitions, Moscow still faces a series of logistical issues with the route, with cargo passing through being far below what Russia had hoped for.
The 37.9 million tonnes still lags far behind the Kremlin's targets.
In 2018, as he unveiled ambitious plans for the Arctic, Putin had set a target of 80 million tonnes per year that he hoped would pass through the Northern Sea route by 2024.
AFP/RSS
