The Polar regions
Russia and China are actively working to increase their respective presence and infrastructure in the Arctic and seek to shape international norms associated with the region to advance their security and economic objectives. For over a decade, Russia’s leadership has given priority to its Arctic region in its national security strategy, foreign policy, and economic planning; approximately 25 percent of Russian territory is located above the Arctic Circle, and 65 percent of Russian land is permafrost. The region is home to strategic natural resources, the under-ice areas where Moscow’s ballistic missile submarines operate, and a heavy concentration of critical Russian military infrastructure.
» Russia aspires to improve its military posture in the Arctic to enhance its ability to defend against a strategic attack, and to respond to Western operations in the region. Much of Russia’s strategic nuclear and conventional forces are stationed on or near the Kola Peninsula, in some cases only a few miles from the Finnish border.
» Though the war in Ukraine has heavily degraded specialized ground forces previously based in the Arctic, the rest of Russia’s naval, strategic air, and air defense forces stationed in the region are mostly intact. Läs rapporten