NARYAN MAR, Nenets Autonomous Area, August 6 (Itar-Tass) — The imperfection of the transport infrastructure in the Arctic region hampers the development of the region, secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said.
“This infrastructure does not meet necessary requirements for protecting Russia’s national interests,” Patrushev said at the Security Council’s visiting session on Saturday.
The session is devoted to the development of the Arctic region’s potential.
“The insufficiency of present-day systems for transporting the Arctic shelf’s mineral resources reduces the investment attractiveness of the country’s main resource base,” he stressed. In his words, the terminals, Varandei and Prirazlomnoye in the Pechora Sea, as well as the merchant navy for taking crude hydrocarbons out of these terminals, are likely an exclusion of the rather difficult situation in this area.
In addition, Patrushev said, “The imperfection of the dual-purpose transport infrastructure prevents from solving problems of units of Russia’s Armed Forces in the Arctic region and has a negative impact on ensuring military security in the region.”
“The existing navigation and hydrometeorological systems allow us to develop the economy of the western part of the Arctic region. But in the eastern part where the majority of our potential resources is located these problems are solved insufficiently,” he added.
“As a whole the exploration of the Arctic region needs strategic planning of our actions to develop Arctic territories within the realisation of the Russian Federation’s state policy in the Arctic region,” the secretary of the Security Council pointed out.