Photo: Romanova Ludmila/GeoPhoto.ru
A Meeting in Kremlin
Yesterday, on 4 August, President Putin met with Rosatom’s Director General Alexey Likhachev.
Rosatom, a national nuclear energy monopoly, is also the official infrastructural operating agency of the Northern Sea Route and owner of Russia’s nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet. The public-controlled company is one of key Russia’s decision-making centers in regard of the Arctic and Arctic-related policies.
The company’s top manager briefed President Putin on Rosatom’s ongoing projects and their prospects. He made, inter alia, the following points:
Overall, the company performs well despite the pandemic and the world crisis. For instance, it was able to top the last year’s target plan by 5%, while generating a record-setting amount of 215.7 billion kWh of electricity in 2020.
The country’s fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers “is in top shape”, said Mr. Likhachev. With the transportation capacity of the NSR rapidly expanding, the company seeks to obtain additional funding for building more icebreakers needed to prevent a gap in service provision at the NSR.
The company is seeing a rapid growth in freight carried via the NSR. This is true for all its three major types of freight such as exports (oil, gas, coal and metals extracted in the Russian Arctic), cabotage and transit.
The idea of launching an international maritime trading lane across the NSR has been recently gaining more and more support both domestically and abroad, in part owing to the March Suez Canal blockage that has revealed the vulnerability of international trade. Rosatom firmly believes in the prospects of the Arctic transit corridor and is committed to invest into its development.
Rosatom, a national nuclear energy monopoly, is also the official infrastructural operating agency of the Northern Sea Route and owner of Russia’s nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet. The public-controlled company is one of key Russia’s decision-making centers in regard of the Arctic and Arctic-related policies.
The company’s top manager briefed President Putin on Rosatom’s ongoing projects and their prospects. He made, inter alia, the following points:
Overall, the company performs well despite the pandemic and the world crisis. For instance, it was able to top the last year’s target plan by 5%, while generating a record-setting amount of 215.7 billion kWh of electricity in 2020.
The country’s fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers “is in top shape”, said Mr. Likhachev. With the transportation capacity of the NSR rapidly expanding, the company seeks to obtain additional funding for building more icebreakers needed to prevent a gap in service provision at the NSR.
The company is seeing a rapid growth in freight carried via the NSR. This is true for all its three major types of freight such as exports (oil, gas, coal and metals extracted in the Russian Arctic), cabotage and transit.
The idea of launching an international maritime trading lane across the NSR has been recently gaining more and more support both domestically and abroad, in part owing to the March Suez Canal blockage that has revealed the vulnerability of international trade. Rosatom firmly believes in the prospects of the Arctic transit corridor and is committed to invest into its development.
5 August 2021
