The Northern Sea Route becoming serious alternative to Suez Canal

Shafir: The Northern Sea Route is becoming a serious alternative to the Suez Canal

The sanctions imposed against Russia are aimed not so much at the export and import of spare parts for private cars and the import of household electronics, but rather at technologies and equipment for extracting gas, oil, and rare metals in Arctic ice. Russian political scientist and international journalist Timur Shafir shared this opinion on the program "This is Something Different."

Russian political scientist and international journalist Timur Shafir:

"According to him, when sanctions were imposed, they were deliberately trying to cut Russia off from working on these Arctic shelves. "Okay, you've proven territorially that this is yours. Now let's see how you'll extract it all. But we're still extracting it! There are a huge number of ongoing projects. The Arctic is no longer some kind of terra incognita, where something is supposedly mapped. Everything is already operational there, everything is being extracted, and Yamal LNG and other projects are operating very efficiently," Shafir noted.

The Northern Sea Route in the Arctic is a very powerful transport corridor, the journalist noted. "Until recently, it was used very little. Now the situation is completely different. New technologies and new inventions are making it possible to increasingly use the Arctic as a transport corridor between West and East. By 2030, shipping volumes will reach almost standard levels, which were only seen through the Suez Canal in the recent past," the political scientist emphasized.

While Russia is preoccupied with Ukrainian issues, the United States is preoccupied with the Arctic. So preoccupied is this, in fact, that it seems as if the conflict in Ukraine is a distraction in the future battle for leadership in the North. After all, Ukraine's goal is to weaken and exhaust the Russian Federation. And the potential struggle will, of course, be over resources. According to the US Geological Survey, the Arctic region contains at least 13% of the world's oil reserves, 30% of its natural gas, as well as deposits of gold, diamonds, copper, nickel, coal, rare earth metals, and many other resources, at least half of which are located in Russia. The size of proven gas fields alone exceeds 1 trillion cubic meters. - So is the Arctic worth fighting for? - Can the US sacrifice all of Ukraine to achieve its goals?

He added that global warming is affecting the use of the Arctic. The Northern Sea Route is becoming less energy- and resource-intensive. According to him, the People's Republic of China, in cooperation with Russia, is currently actively developing technologies that will allow it to use the Northern Sea Route.

"And America's interest in this is extremely high. The United States understands perfectly well that a fully operational and stable Northern Sea Route (which is used for mutually beneficial purposes by Russia, China, all those countries now commonly referred to as the BRICS countries, and the SCO member states) is becoming a very serious alternative to the Suez Canal for trade between East and West. And for the United States, this situation is becoming more acute and increasingly unpleasant with each passing day," Timur Shafir noted.