Russia’s Antarctic strategy envisages a Russian presence in the region

Russia’s Antarctic strategy envisages a Russian presence in the region based on geopolitical considerations as well as concrete research and practical objectives that cannot be met without improving existing infrastructure, the head of the Federal Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Service (Roshydromet) Alexander Frolov told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.

Earlier Mr. Frolov said that his service plans to raise the issue of Russia’s strategic presence in the Antarctic through 2020 and beyond at the meeting of the Russian government on October 21.

“This is a critical foreign and domestic policy document, which will determine, first, the policy orientation of Russia, which is actively maintaining its position under the Antarctic Treaty of 1959. Second, Article 3 of that Treaty declares the Antarctic to be a peaceful zone for scientific research. Therefore, we can only maintain a presence there if we strengthen our scientific potential and infrastructure. This is the main theme,” Alexander Frolov said on the sidelines of the international forum The Arctic: Territory of Dialogue.

He said the strategy addresses the development of Antarctic research stations and improving infrastructure, notably establishing intercontinental and continental air support for the stations.

The landing strip at Progress station, said Mr. Frolov, will be suitable for heavy planes from Capetown and Chile, which will allow for the transportation of people and cargo, adding that a decision must be made on the types of planes to be used for intracontinental flights.

“We have to build a large fleet. The Antarctic strategy calls for a new Fyodorov, a new vessel for geological research – a new Karpinsky (referring to the scientific research vessels the Akademik Fyodorov and the Akademik Karpinsky – eds.), and two research vessels for fishermen could be built in addition,” said Mr. Frolov.

The strategy would not increase the number of Antarctic stations, said Mr. Frolov. Today there are ten stations there – five are seasonal and five operate all year round.

“We will develop the stations we have. We will build new buildings and infrastructure and we will make extensive use of automatic devices, placing them where necessary and with specific experiments in mind… We have more stations than anyone, we have enough,” said Mr. Frolov.

In addition to research on climate, geophysics and marine animals, practical objectives can be met in Antarctica as well, for example, studying the continent’s subsoil resources.

“Commercial activity is not possible right now, but in the future ice can be used a source of fresh water and some other resources can be used for economic gain,” Mr. Frolov said.

The head of Roshydromet cited data that suggest that the effective usage of krill could generate a net profit of about $400 million a year. In addition, the valuable genetic material of Antarctic biological resources is very promising for medicine and cosmetics.

Mr. Frolov noted that antennas for the GLONASS system installed in February of 2010 by the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) and Roshydromet in Antarctica make it possible to correct the orbits of satellites and improve the accuracy of the entire system.

“We will continue to work on this. At least two more GLONASS stations will be built. That is an entirely practical result,” said Mr. Frolov.

“Russia has very serious interests there – geopolitical, scientific and economic. We are a leading world power with global interests and we cannot confine ourselves to the Moscow principality,” the head of Roshydromet said in closing.