Dividing the Arctic. On the issue of the Russian Arctic boundaries

The reconfiguration of the international arena that is taking place at the moment cannot be characterized other than as a time of crises and sudden changes. It seems quite obvious that in the conditions of international tension, any division of states into “friendly” and “unfriendly”, accompanied by the mutual imposition of sanctions, by the growing desire of countries to realize their national interests, including the military methods, the most vulnerable points of intersection of geopolitical interests are under threat. For Russia, one of them is the Arctic, a region of high resource, industrial and infrastructural potential. Meanwhile, despite the importance of the Arctic for the state and the long history of exploration of the territory, the borders of the Russian Arctic space have not been clearly defined yet, which makes it possible to increase political pressure from unfriendly states and international organizations. Having ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1997, the Russian Federation undertook obligations to act in accordance with the established procedure in case of territorial claims to water and underwater spaces. Consequently, asserting its rights to the Lomonosov Ridge and other objects that are the extensions of the continental shelf, in 2001 the Russian Federation filed an application to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. Currently, the procedure is still incomplete, although Russia in February 2023 received the recommendations of the Commission, which has recognized a significant part of the state’s territorial claims. However, the contemporary conditions are such that any further efforts to delimit the spaces with the Arctic states, which have overlapping interests with Russia, are fraught with the aggravation of the situation in the international arena and unconstructive co-operation in general.

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