Arctic Opinions

A meeting between the President and the Head of the Murmansk Region has yielded positive outcomes. The results of the talk will solidify the course of development and Murmansk’s vision of the North. Recently, the Head of the Murmansk Region Andrey Chibis travelled to Moscow for a tête-à-tête with Vladimir Putin. This was their third meeting this year, which surely indicates new developments for the Arctic. First and foremost, this signifies the President's trust and the potential for future benefits regarding the current course of development in the North...

As the natural habitats of polar bears and brown bears expand and intertwine, the chances for new hybrids increase. In Russia, experts suggest that pizzlies might appear in the north of Yakutia. Pizzlies and grolars (hybrids of polar bears and grizzly bears) first appeared in the news in 2006 when a Canadian hunter shot a bear that looked rather unusual. What seemed to be a polar bear exhibited some characteristics of a grizzly bear, including patches of brown fur and longer claws. Other noticeable...

Indigenous peoples are considered one of the most vulnerable groups in the country. That, of course, remains a domestic issue for Russia, but new problems concerning international politics have arised and put everyday life of populations at risk. First and foremost, some indigenous peoples are dispersed between different countries, and thus border closures prevent any contacts, be it academic, cultural exchange or simple family communication. For example, the Saami, the Vepsians in the West and the Inuit, the Evenes and the Aleuts in the East of Russia do not have such opportunities anymore...

On the 23rd of May, I had the great opportunity to speak at the First Interregional Forum ‘The Arctic: Our Global Neighbourhood’, giving a talk on the Arctic policy of Italy, my homeland. Italy, a Mediterranean country with maybe an unexpected presence in the Arctic, is anyway present there, as I stressed in Petrozavodsk, primarily through scientific research. In Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, and Thule, Greenland, there are permanent research bases of the Italian National Research Council through the Institute of Polar Science...