ARCTIC: Russia’s Growing Arctic Fleet & more – 20th May 2025

Góðan daginn from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 20th of May twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

Let’s kick things off in Russia, where the biggest Arctic fleet of ships in the world is about to get even bigger. On Wednesday the 14th, the Russian government published a new strategy for its shipbuilding program, which outlined the government’s intention to invest over $6 billion US dollars into domestic shipbuilding over the next ten years. The plan calls for the construction of 130 ice-class vessels, including oil and gas tankers, to further develop Russia’s Arctic energy industry.

This strategy comes after years of international sanctions preventing many countries from working with Russia, so now the country intends to build a massive new fleet and become immune to further sanctions.

That hasn’t stopped international sanctions against Russia though. On Thursday the 15th, the northern European news agency, The Barents Observer, wrote that the EU and UK have adopted another round of sanctions against Russia and its shadow fleet, the illegal vessels that sell Russian goods around the world to evade policing.

Keir Startmer, UK Prime Minister, called this the largest round of sanctions the UK has ever imposed, targeting almost 100 Russian ships and tankers, many of which are ice-class vessels operating in the Arctic. Starmer noted that the sanctioned vessels have sold cargo worth $24 billion US dollars since the beginning of twenty twenty-four, so the new sanctions should deal a significant blow to Russia’s illegal fleet and economic ambitions.

Shadow vessels aren’t the only unwelcome thing in Arctic waters: mercury pollution is on the rise, and the mystery behind it may finally be solved. On Thursday the 15th, researchers from the University of Connecticut published a study in Science Advances investigating toxic mercury levels in the Arctic Ocean. The study found that mercury is reaching the region from two major sources: the atmosphere and the deep sea.

While atmospheric mercury has long been known, the research revealed that changes in ocean currents are pushing a deep-sea mercury compound to the surface. There, it transforms into a more toxic form that can either enter marine food chains or be absorbed into the atmosphere. Both pathways eventually carry mercury north, where it settles in the Arctic. Now that this mystery is solved, the next step is finding a way to prevent the problem from getting even worse.

Residents of the Arctic are trying to get rid of mercury, but other metals are incredibly valuable. Greenland is a vast, untapped source of rare earth metals that countries across the world have been trying to access. On Thursday the 15th, Vivian Motzfeldt, Greenland’s foreign minister, gave an interview with Politico where she revealed her country is eager to deepen connections with the EU over the US or China due to security concerns, and is willing to build new partnerships around critical minerals and energy with the EU.

With Donald Trump continuing to declare his intention to take control of Greenland, this interview shows that the country sees its future as an independent one.

Greenland isn’t the only nation building connections internationally. On Thursday the 15th, Norway became the fifty-fifth signatory nation of the Artemis Accords at a ceremony at the Norwegian Space Agency in Oslo. In a previous show, we reported that Norway officially became a Space Nation in April, when the Andoya Spaceport in the northern part of the country held its first commercial space launch.

The Artemis Accords were established in twenty twenty and set forth principles for sustainable space activities, including transparency and the peaceful use of outer space. With this signing, Norway is making its intention to become a long-term space nation clear, and Arctic Norway will be seeing much more space activity in the future.

While cooperation between Arctic nations is desirable, Canada’s Arctic is preparing for conflict. On Thursday the 15th, Canadian broadcaster CBC spoke with Steve Boivin, Canada’s Military Operations Commander, who revealed that the country is significantly expanding its military presence in the Arctic. Currently, Canada’s military maintains forces in the region for about six months of the year, avoiding the harsh winter season. But with rising fears of northern conflict, the country now plans to maintain an active military presence for over ten months annually.

To support this expansion, Boivin confirmed that the federal government has allocated an additional $300 million US dollars to the defense budget. This move signals Canada’s growing commitment to the Arctic, ensuring the nation is prepared to defend its northern territories year-round if needed.

Military defence is important to Canada, but cultural defense is equally important to the country’s Indigenous communities. On Wednesday the 14th, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the organization that represents the Inuit communities in the Nunavut region, announced that they have received about $10 million US dollars in federal funding to support Indigenous languages. Three other Inuit organizations have received federal funding too, representing all of the Inuit communities across northern Canada.

There are many Inuit languages, and this funding aims to give opportunities for educating children and adults, creating new books, films and music, and documenting languages to ensure they survive in the long term.

Over the border in Alaska, there’s some hope for the state’s bear population. On Monday the 12th, a state judge ordered the immediate halt of a controversial bear hunting program run by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The program had killed eleven bears over the weekend, despite being ruled illegal in twenty twenty-two. Officials had relaunched the cull to protect struggling caribou herds, some of which have declined by up to ninety percent in thirty years.

However, critics of the cull argued that climate change, not bears, is the real threat to caribou, and that bears are essential for maintaining a healthy ecosystem.

Hunting has stopped in Alaska, but is unexpectedly restarting in Iceland. In April, we reported that Iceland’s only active whale hunting company announced they would not operate in twenty twenty-five, which animal protection groups considered a win for whale protection.

But in a twist, the fishing company, Tjaldtangi, announced on Friday the 16th that they will hunt minke whales this summer in Iceland’s west fjords. Tjaldtangi has held a whaling license for many years but since twenty twenty, the company has only hunted a single whale, with the company seeming to no longer actively continue whaling. However, the company stated that, with minke whale populations growing in Iceland, they see an opportunity to resume the whale hunt.

To read more about the controversial history of whaling in Iceland, take a look at the link in the show notes.

Most Icelanders may be too distracted by earthquakes to worry about whaling news. On Friday the 16th, national broadcaster RUV reported that the Civil Protection Committee has urged residents and businesses in the capital to prepare for a potential new wave of volcanic activity.

Since November twenty twenty-three, the southern town of Grindavík has experienced repeated eruptions, which subsided in April. Now, geologists from the Met Office warn that volcanic unrest may be shifting toward Reykjavík, home to two-thirds of Iceland’s population. The report noted that when one volcanic system in the region activates, it often triggers nearby systems as well. If history repeats itself, Reykjavík could face a chain of eruptions and earthquakes, causing one of the most serious volcanic threats in Iceland’s modern history.

Finally over to Sweden, where long overdue amends were made with the Sami community. On Saturday the 17th, a funeral ceremony was held in the northern city of Luleå for the remains of two Sami men whose bodies were exhumed by Lund University in eighteen seventy-five and used for outdated racial anatomy studies for many years. The Sami Association of the Lule-Boden region requested that the two men be allowed to return home to northern Sweden and be laid to rest, which Lund University agreed to.

Even though the Sami association is happy to have settled this matter, Jonathan Sagelind, the chairman, told news outlet SVT on the 17th that they received no support from local or national government and that the historic mistreatment of Sami people remains an open wound.

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

Did you know that we do lots of other updates? We’ve got country updates and non-county updates, including the Multilateral Update, and the Ocean Update.

Check the full list with the link in the show notes!

Ha Det