Alexander Stubb, famous in the Barents Region for branding the north as the world´s most sexy region, is put on track to take over after Jyrki Katainen.
Oslo asks Moscow for an explanation after BarentsObserver earlier today reported that Russia’s sanctioned Deputy Prime Minister suddenly appeared on Svalbard.
Conservative leader Erna Solberg forms a minority government with the Progress party with parliament backing from the Liberals and Christian Democrats based on an agreement not to open for controversial Arctic oil drilling.
Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitrii Medvedev will on Sunday be elected the third president of the Russian Federation. Election results from Northwest Russia might however be among his worst.
European Commission Vice President Gunter Verheugen says he is confident that talks on a new EU-Russia treaty will begin before the upcoming June 26 summit.
The Russian government has established a special commission, which is to be responsible for the control of foreign investments in strategic sectors, Minister of Finance Aleksey Kudrin confirms.
President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday announced that unprecedented powers over Russia’s foreign policy will be transferred from the president’s office to the prime minister.
Russia is leading the scramble for the Arctic’s natural resources, ahead Canada, USA, Denmark and Norway, Daily Telegraph reports. There is little chance of everyone playing fair when so much it as stake, the newspaper maintains.
Former U.S. deputy secretary of defense John Hamre says the USA will not have the High North on its agenda “for a long time”. The current President of the Centre of Strategic and International Studies in Washington says his country is too busy with world crisis to look north.
In his speech at the UN General Assembly this weekend, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov highlighted Russia’s interest in the establishment of a new international Euro-Atlantic security order. New global security challenges require new international security solutions, he maintained.
The global financial crisis will have massive political consequences for Russia, a noted Russian researcher says. He believes relations between the political establishment and society as well as between Moscow and the regions will be put to the test, and that social unrest could erupt in the country.
It is time for the EU to clearly assess its interest in the Arctic, the Commission’s new Communication on the Arctic highlights. With the document, the EU signals a new, stronger commitment towards the increasingly important region.
