JAKARTA - Russia has confirmed its presence in the North Pole. This time, Red Bear Country is building an ultra-modern military base, right in the heart of the North Pole, where Moscow clashes with NATO.
Rapid developments in inaccessibility and navigation routes in the Arctic region are thawing out, attracting global competition and Moscow's clash of interests with various countries, including the United States.
"The enemy must not pass," said one of the commanders of Russian forces in the area Ivan Glushchenko, as reported by The Moscow Times, Wednesday, May 19.
Glushchenko, one of the base's officers, said his men spotted the Norwegian reconnaissance plane early last week.
Although passing without violating the border, Russian troops sent one of their planes to 'accompany' the Norwegian aircraft for several hours.
These tensions are likely to resurface in Reykjavik, Iceland on Wednesday, when the Arctic Council ministerial meeting consisting of Russia, the United States (US), Canada, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland takes place.
Ahead of the meeting at which Russia will take its lead, AFP was invited to visit the 'Arctic Trefoil', the northernmost military base located in the remote archipelago of Franz Josef Land, in the Arctic Ocean.
Built on Alexandra Land Island which is only inhabited by military personnel, Russian troops are stationed in a clover-shaped complex, painted the colors of the Russian flag, white, blue, red.
Occupying the ruins of a Soviet Union site, the complex now covers more than 14,000 square meters and is capable of supporting itself independently for over a year. Formerly, this was the Nagurskoye airbase.
The base is equipped with necessities such as a power plant, water purification, and heating system. The base also has a clinic, gym, cinema, sauna, and even a church.
All facilities are connected by heated tunnels, allowing about 150 or so servicemen to escape the bad weather outside, where temperatures can drop to minus 42 degrees Celsius.
"The complex is like a space station, the only difference is not in orbit but the Arctic desert", explained General Igor Churkin, one of the commanders of Russia's Northern Fleet which occupies the base.
Despite strong winds and bad weather conditions, the base also has a giant airfield. It was from there that two MiG-31 fighter jets, one of the world's fastest planes, completed their Arctic flight in March, a first for the Russian Air Force.
"The base also offers the Bastion coastal defense system with a range of 360 kilometers. This has demonstrated its reliability in the extreme weather conditions in the Arctic," said commander Balabek Eminov.
As Moscow seeks to assert its influence in the Arctic, military strife has escalated in recent years, with Russian and NATO forces making maneuvers to demonstrate their ambition.
Provocative action
Apart from the 'incident' of the Norwegian plane crossing, Russia also paid attention to the military developments of other countries around the Arctic. Northern Fleet Commander Alexander Moiseyev said US and NATO forces were conducting maneuvers in the Arctic with increased regularity.
"We haven't seen this since the end of World War Two," he said, speaking from aboard a nuclear warfare cruiser in the port of Severomorsk, a closed city on Russia's Arctic coast and a base for the Northern Fleet.
He denounced Washington's provocative actions in the region, such as strategic bomber flights close to the Russian border, and the deployment of US ships into the Barents Sea and off the coast of NATO member Norway.
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Responding to the situation, Russia has increased its military presence in recent years, in particular by deploying state-of-the-art S-400 air defense systems to the region.
Although expected to meet face to face for the first time with his US counterpart Antony Blinken on the sidelines of an Arctic Council summit, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday warned other countries staking claims in the Arctic.
"This is our land and our waters", he stressed.
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