Moscow is getting tetchy as the West zones in on the Arctic for resources and security

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May 23, 2025
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“We will not supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil — we will not supply anything,” Putin said.

Sergei Karpukhin | Afp | Getty Images

Russia has long been the geopolitical kingpin of the Arctic, with deeply-embedded military, commercial and strategic investments in the region.

But now that the U.S. and NATO are pivoting their focus to the Arctic for geoeconomic and security reasons, Moscow is getting tetchy about the West’s newfound interest.

That’s perhaps to be expected, given Russia’s territorial stake in the region: Russia spans 53% (or over 22,990 miles) of the Arctic Ocean coastline, and out of its population of around 146 million people, 2.5 millions Russians live and work there, according to the Arctic Institute, a center for circumpolar security studies.

For locals — and the wider Russian economy — strategic drivers of jobs, investment and growth include oil, gas and mineral extraction industries, fisheries, and infrastructure and transportation logistics, particularly related to the Northern Sea Route, a major Arctic shipping route for Russia between Europe and Asia.

In addition, Russia maintains its sea-based nuclear deterrent in the Arctic and has a number of military bases and airfields there, as well a specialized fleet of ice breakers to facilitate trade, transportation and resource extraction in the territory.

This is why Russia watches closely when U.S. President Donald Trump says he’s going to take over the resource-rich Arctic island of Greenland, or when NATO carries out Arctic war games.

“NATO countries in general are increasingly designating the Far North as a springboard for possible conflicts,’ Russian President Vladimir Putin commented as NATO allies conducted war drills in Norway in March that involved 10,000 NATO troops from nine allied nations.

The exercises were designed, NATO said, to hone their skills, military capabilities and cooperation for extreme cold weather warfare.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits a nuclear submarine base March 26, 2025, in Murmansk, Russia. Putin was on a day-long trip to Murmansk.

Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Putin was not convinced, stating that it “is obvious that the role and importance of the Arctic both for Russia and for the whole world is growing. But, unfortunately, geopolitical competition, the struggle for positions in this region, is also intensifying.”

Shortly after NATO’s exercises, Russia’s Northern Fleet (tasked with defending the Arctic seas along Northern Russia, including the Barents Sea and Kara Sea) begun exercises in the Arctic involving 20 ships and around 1,500 personnel, Russian news agency Interfax reported.

CNBC has contacted the Kremlin for further comment and is awaiting a response.

Russia defending interests

Russia is looking to aggressively expand its economic interests in the Arctic, with the region contributing significant value to the economy.

“Today, the Arctic already produces 7.5% of Russia’s gross domestic product and more than 11% of its exports,” Alexey Chekunkov, minister for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, said last week in comments reported by newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and translated by Google.

Russia was “implementing global-scale investment projects in the Arctic and developing the world’s largest network of Arctic cities,” he added.

“As the projects that have already begun are implemented, the importance of the Arctic in Russia’s economy, logistics, and security will only increase,” Chekunkov said, noting that “it is difficult to overestimate the importance of the Northern Sea Route, which provides a 40% shorter route between Europe and Asia.”

The Prirazlomnaya offshore ice-resistant oil-producing platform is seen at Pechora Sea, Russia.

Sergey Anisimov | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

International sanctions designed to degrade Russia’s oil and gas sector following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have affected some big projects in the region, with liquefied natural gas (LNG) output from the Arctic LNG 2 project and a mega oil project planned by Vostok Oil among the major infrastructure projects hit by Western sanctions.

Russia has looked to evade sanctions by using a so-called “shadow fleet” of vessels and tankers to export its oil and gas supplies to customers still willing to buy them, with Ukraine’s Western allies playing catch-up to try to close loopholes that have allowed Moscow to do this.

Marie-Anne Coninsx, former EU ambassador for the Arctic, told CNBC Wednesday that the Arctic was “of crucial strategic interest for Russia, economically and [in terms of] security. It’s an enormous source of GDP because of the extraction of energy resources, and the use of the Northern Sea Route is an enormous income for Russia. And with this income, and despite the sanctions, Russia has been able to finance one third of the cost of the war in Ukraine with these exports,” she told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

“The sanctions are having an effect but should go further, because it it is touching the the Russian economy, but there is the other aspect of security, because Russians known its nuclear powers are in the Arctic, and this is a serious threat for Europe,” she said.

The West playing catch-up?

One of the problems for Europe and NATO’s Arctic strategy is that it is only playing catch-up when compared to Russia’s long-standing development of its Arctic territory.

Russia began reinvesting in Arctic affairs in the mid-2000s, said analysts at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), adding that “the Kremlin remains adamant in asserting complete control over the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation,” as it looks to protect perceived vital interests along the Northern Sea Route.

In contrast, the West’s renewed interest in the Arctic has been largely spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Until [that], I would say there was no real NATO awareness of the security threat in the Arctic, it was neglecting its northern flank,” former EU ambassador to the Arctic Coninsx told CNBC.

“But due to the invasion of Russia in Ukraine, and particularly thanks to the new membership [in the alliance] of Sweden and Finland, there is a strengthening security force from NATO in northern Europe … And for the European Union, it has become more important for geo-economic and geopolitical security reasons.”

The Arctic “is becoming the center of world attention” also for “geoeconomic reasons” — including the fact that climate change meant the wealth of natural resources and critical minerals in the Arctic were now more accessible, and there are more shipping opportunities along the Northern Sea Route.

“Therefore there is an increased interest also for major geopolitical players, not only of the U.S., but also from non-Arctic states, major ones like China,” she said.

U.S. Marines in military vehicles are pictured as they participate in a military exercise called “Cold Response 2022”, gathering around 30,000 troops from NATO member countries plus Finland and Sweden, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, near Bjerkvik in the Arctic Circle, Norway, March 24, 2022.

Yves Herman | Reuters

U.S. interest in the Arctic has also been renewed by the Trump administration, with the president vowing to take over Greenland, potentially with military force. That did not go down well in either Greenland, Denmark or Europe, with widespread condemnation of the president’s posture on the matter.

Interestingly, Russia seemed to take a more sanguine position on Trump’s interest, saying it was watching developments closely.

Eyeing an opportunity to leverage its own experience in the “Far North” around the Arctic Circle, and perhaps to ingratiate itself with Trump, Bloomberg reported in February that Moscow was interested in developing joint projects with the U.S. around natural resource extraction and transportation in the Arctic.

CNBC has asked the Kremlin and White House for further comment on the report and is awaiting a response.