When we discuss the security situation in the Arctic, a region shared by five countries including the American and Russian superpowers, home to a nuclear arsenal and strategic natural resources, it is often tempting to evoke a new Cold War. to indicate the rivalries taking place under the pack ice. Sometimes it’s justified. Sometimes it’s a gesture.

Russia, a key player that owns almost half of the polar region and 24,000 kilometers of coastline, launched a massive remilitarization plan there in 2014. The American Army belatedly responded by announcing that in January 2021 a “Regaining Dominance Over the Arctic”. The last two decades have certainly been littered with incidents in the Arctic Ocean involving the various forces involved. Nothing, however, compares to the explosion caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Western intelligence attention then turned to the Arctic and to the submarine cables sunken off the coast, essential for Internet service to financial center London and for the transmission of satellite imagery of the Great North to the United States and the Atlantic. The vulnerability of NATO allies had already been made clear during the sabotage of unknown origin against Norway, a country destined to become Europe’s leading oil and gas supplier, when it was decided to implement international sanctions against Moscow. In January 2022, for example, an attack on the Svalbard archipelago damaged a cable supplying SvalSat, the world’s largest satellite data receiving station used by NASA and the European Space Agency. The double explosion on September 26 at the Nord Stream gas pipelines had heightened that sense of urgency and fear of Russia expanding the scope of operations…

Today, when asked about the impact of the war in Ukraine on the Arctic, one of the most unexpected answers – and the most significant in terms of security, but also human – is found in these obituaries, linked to Vladimir Ouïba’s Telegram account are taken. Governor of the Komi Republic, a Russian region crossed by the Arctic Circle. Like this one, published on November 2, 2022 : “Dear citizens of the Republic! It is with pain that I inform you that our compatriot, Corporal of the Russian Guards Vladimir Evgenyevich Oplesnin, died during a special military operation [en Ukraine]. Vladimir Evgenyevich was born in Syktyvkar [capitale régionale]. Under contract since 2014. In September 2022 he continued his service in the Chechen Republic, then in the territory of the military special operation. Served as a gunner. He died heroically in the village of Davydov Brod [Davydiv Brid en ukrainien], Kherson region, defense of Russia and our compatriots against neo-Nazis. Eternal glory and memory of the Defender of the Fatherland. »

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