Russian army trains for Arctic resource war

by Barry Artiste | June 24, 2008 at 07:36 am | 492 views | 12 comments

Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor\
Well as long as they stay on their side of the arctic, Canada most likely would not act. The United States may do that for us. Funny the world powers are all making a run to the arctic claiming it for themselves, where as decades ago no one gave a crap about the arctic until oil, gold, diamonds and other resource rich discoveries made World powers do an about face, Yep, especially since no one bothered to ask the Inuit who have lived in this beautiful desolate bitter cold place for thousands of years if they minded being invaded? The inuit on the other hand say WTF?? "Hey??!!! Wait a Minute!, This is our Home! Course that plee will always fall on deaf ears in the world international community, because what are the Inuit gonna do? Spear their skidoos?

Russia's military is training its forces for combat in the Arctic to protect its claims to resources on the continental shelf.

"After the heads of several countries disputed Russia's rights to the resource-rich Arctic Ocean shelf," the military "immediately" began adapting its training plans for units "that might be called upon to fight in the Arctic," Lieutenant General Vladimir Shamanov said in an interview published on Tuesday in Krasnaya Zvezda, or Red Star, the army's newspaper.

The Arctic shelf may hold 10 billion tons of oil equivalent, as well as gold, nickel and diamonds, according to the Russian government, which sent a mini-submarine to plant a flag beneath the polar cap in August. Danish Science Minister Helge Sander called the move "a joke," while Canada responded by saying it would move troops to its north to assert Arctic sovereignty.

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Luiz Castro

at 11:42 on June 24th, 2008

The real "cold war" is upcoming.

Barbara McPherson

at 13:27 on June 24th, 2008

good stuff:

Barry Artiste, I like this story. It's good stuff. Well, the innocents are always the losers in these power games, so you can forget about justice for the Inuit. We'll probably live to see the Arctic heat up in more ways that one.

yuls.source

at 13:51 on June 24th, 2008

Canada is not investing heavily in its northern fleet to protect its northern boundaries so there is no surprise in other nations wanting to take over it

Barry Artiste

at 15:45 on June 24th, 2008

Thanks everyone for your excellent comments, as Castro says, a New Cold War and as Barbara so eloquently put it, it will certainly heat up things as nations clamour for one of the last bastions of relatively pollution free space. But Yuls, you should know Canada is investing in keeping the Arctic Canadian, they have Northern Rangers, which are Inuit who are armed with vehicles to report any encroachment on their turf and will report it to the Canadian Military, who will put subs and aircraft in the skies. I hear also a base in the works in Baffin Island, but as you say Yuls, if we snooze on this, we will surely lose as our allies will certainly help us out for a piece of the Arctic Pie.

Luiz Castro

at 16:05 on June 24th, 2008

Thank you Barry. It is very interesting to see the similarities between situations. In Brazil we have the Amazon forest heading north our Country; almost 40% of our territory is uninhabited, except for few Indian tribes. We also have the same worries about foreign domination and complain against lack of national security on that far border.

Barry Artiste

at 16:08 on June 24th, 2008

Well my friend, as long as politicians do not look for a bribe from developers, the rainforest should be fine for the time being.

JeffHuang

at 16:28 on June 24th, 2008

they already gave up alaska, how on earth are they going to get to the arctic without pissing off the U.S.

Criticom

at 16:33 on June 24th, 2008

good stuff:

Barry Artiste, I like this story. It's good stuff.

yuls.source

at 16:46 on June 24th, 2008

Stephen Harper has only recently realized the importance of investing in northern boarder fleet. In 2007, he promised to add 6-8 ships to better guard the Canadian Arctic. But these ships are not heavy icebreakers, so some of the northern passages are only guarded during summer time, left unprotected for the rest of the year. The armed icebreakers would cost $1 billion each, so we are facing a dilemma here.

BigT

at 18:56 on June 24th, 2008

good stuff:

Does anyone else think the Russian flag sucks?

Barry Artiste

at 19:00 on June 24th, 2008

Thanks for the GS Flag BigT. I agree about the flag, but....

Barry Artiste

at 18:58 on June 24th, 2008

Thanks for your comments everyone, True the Russians gave up alaska, so maybe they learned their lesson, as for Yuls comments, guess you never saw a gaggle of pissed off Inuit in Kayaks armed with Wooden Ballistic Cruise Spears, yep a Farce to be reckoned with, yesiree~~!.

Thanks again for your comments, and thanks for visiting Criticom.