Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 01/2011

Russia's Arctic policy: Geopolitics, mercantilism and identity-building

Pavel K. Baev

December 2010

Finnish Institute for International Affairs

Abstract

The maritime border delimitation deal between Russia and Norway sensationally announced by President Dmitri Medvedev in Oslo on 27 April 2010 and signed in Murmansk on 15 September 2010 warrants a re-appraisal of Russia’s Arctic policy. The penchant for sensationalism often spills over from the media into policy analysis, which recycles perceptions of the ‘struggle for resources’ reaching the intensity of a ‘great Arctic game’ and escalating into a ‘new Cold War’.