ARCTIC: NATO Activity in Boden & more – 9th Sep 2025

Góðan daginn from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 9th of September twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

The political struggle over Greenland continued after last week’s revelation that the US is running a covert influence campaign to turn public opinion against Danish rule. The EU has now responded. On Wednesday the 3rd, Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq reported that The European Commission is proposing to increase its financial support to Greenland from about $260 million US dollars to over $600 million, per six-year funding period.

Already the biggest recipient of EU overseas funding, Greenland is being convinced to remain a part of the European landscape in the face of the US hoping to take control of the country.

As tension grows in the north, more troops are being stationed in the Arctic. On Friday the 5th, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported that the northern town of Boden has become a central hub for NATO activity. Boden has a population of about 30,000 residents, but NATO exercises in the region have been adding another 25,000 people to the town’s inhabitants.

This is worrying the town’s leaders, with the community planning committee in Boden stating that they simply don’t have enough water production or sewage treatment capacity without costing the local citizens a lot of money. The committee has contacted the national government and asked for proper emergency reserves to be built in Boden. If the Arctic is to be the next key defence location, it needs to be ready.

Political conflict in the Arctic is growing between Norway and Russia too. In previous shows we covered that in July, the Norwegian government sanctioned several Russian fishing companies, removing their licenses to fish in Norwegian waters. On Wednesday the 3rd, news agency High North News reported that Russia is now preparing retaliatory measures.

The Federal Agency for Fisheries in Russia has warned that if Norway doesn’t reverse its ban within a month, then Russia will close its waters off to all Norwegian vessels. Not only that, but Russia will cease to share its quota of fish with Norway. Currently, the two nations work together to ensure their Arctic waters are not overfished, but Russia is threatening to take all the fish it can in its northern waters.

The political tension between Norway and Russia is growing every day. Bloomberg has published a summary of recent events. Check it out with the link in the show notes.

Another nation feeling the threat of Russian conflict is Finland. On Friday the 5th, The Moscow Times, an independent Russian news agency, reported that the Russian military has begun building fortifications on the border with Finland. The Russian Security Council says that this is due to the increasing NATO activity in Finland, after NATO confirmed on Monday the 1st that its new northern command headquarters will be moved to the Finnish city of Mikkeli.

Elsewhere in Finland, there’s justice for the immigrants who have been working in terrible conditions in the north. On Friday the 5th, the Lapland district court announced that two berry company executives are receiving unconditional prison terms after finding them guilty of aggravated human trafficking crimes.

Finland has a work scheme in place to attract workers from abroad, usually Thailand, to pick berries in Lapland during the summer. However, Kiantama, one of the main Finnish berry companies, was overcharging the workers for their flights, visas and food in order to keep them in debt and unable to stop working. The company executives will now face prison and heavy fines to repay those affected.

Another legal case is making waves in Alaska. On Thursday the 4th, the Anchorage Daily News reported that the Mat-Su borough has been ordered to repay nearly $6 million US dollars in federal funding after abandoning a ferry terminal project.

The case dates back to twenty ten, when the US Navy built the world’s first icebreaking passenger ferry for the borough, and the federal government provided funding to build a terminal. However, upkeep costs proved too high, and the borough sold the ferry in twenty fifteen for just $1.5 million US dollars to the Philippine Red Cross, despite costing the Navy $80 million dollars to build. With the vessel gone, the terminal was never completed.

Now, a decade later, federal officials are demanding repayment and have threatened to cut all future grants if the borough refuses.

On the other hand, a different Alaskan infrastructure project is looking to begin work soon. On Wednesday the 3rd, the US House voted narrowly to advance a bill to build the controversial Ambler Road project. Ambler Road is a proposed over 200-mile, almost 350-kilometer-long road through pristine northern Alaskan wilderness, which would allow mining companies to reach a large copper and zinc deposit.

The bill is expected to pass through the US Senate and be signed into law by President Trump in the coming weeks. Environmental groups, native communities, and former President Biden all say the road is an environmental risk that threatens the Alaskan ecosystem. Backers of the road say the copper deposit is worth almost $8 billion US dollars and would be a huge financial benefit to all Alaskan citizens.

The fragility of the Alaskan ecosystem has been in focus this summer, with another wave of wildfires causing serious problems for people and nature. On Wednesday the 3rd, newspaper The Alaska Beacon spoke with Rick Thoman, a climate scientist who studies disaster preparedness in Alaska. He said that this year’s wildfire season has been unusual. It started very slowly, in early June, with less than forty acres (less than a square kilometer) burned across the state. In late June, things suddenly changed when over 80,000 lightning strikes sparked the state alight, with many hitting beside population centres and causing sudden evacuations.

The end result has been over a million acres, over 4,000 square kilometers, burned in Alaska this summer in the largest wildfire season since twenty twenty-one.

Over the border in the Canadian Yukon, the mining industry is about to see some major changes. On Sunday the 7th, Canadian broadcaster CBC obtained a draft framework that shows that the Yukon government is planning new mining laws in the territory. The biggest proposed change involves how mineral rights are granted.

Under current law, when a mining company claims an area of land, it gets automatic access to mine all the minerals on that land. The new law proposes that mineral rights won’t be automatically given to a mine: they will need to apply for permission to mine each mineral found on the land.

This law hopes to implement stricter controls on mining activity in the Yukon, with the territory still reeling from the Eagle Gold mine collapse and the resulting environmental damage last year.

Canada’s north is opening up to shipping as well as mining, but not without serious consequences. On Sunday the 7th, the shipping news agency gCaptain reported that a commercial freighter vessel ran aground in the Franklin Straight, in remote Arctic Canada.

According to Wagenborg, the vessel’s operator, no one has been hurt and no pollution has been released into the environment.

As Arctic sea ice continues to melt, more and more ships are using the north as a shipping lane. But Canada’s northwest passage is a risky route, with shipping companies reporting repeated accidents and groundings over recent years.

Finally, to Sweden, for a treasure hunt! On Thursday the 4th, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported that after a ten-year break, the Geological Survey of Sweden has relaunched the national mineral hunt.

Initially launched in nineteen sixty-seven in northern Sweden, the contest asks citizens across Sweden to find a mineral somewhere in the country and submit it for examination. Whoever discovers the most valuable mineral receives a cash prize, currently set at over $8,000 US dollars.

The Geological Survey believes many Swedish people are sitting on a literal gold mine, and hopes someone can find it for them.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

A new special episode is coming soon. Our Arctic Writer Jack Ball will be hosting the Ramble show and having a chat with political geographer Mia Bennett. Stay tuned!

Bless bless