ABSTRACT
There has been a significant shift in Russia’s threat perceptions and security policies in the High North. In contrast with the Cold War era, when the Arctic was a zone for global confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States/NATO, this region is now seen by Moscow as a platform for international cooperation. Russia now believes that there are no serious hard security threats to it and that the soft security agenda is much more important. Russia’s military power has new functions, such as ascertaining Russian sovereignty over its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in the region, protecting Moscow’s economic interests in the High North, and performing some other symbolic functions. Moscow believes that the regional cooperative agenda could include climate change mitigation, environmental protection, maritime safety, Arctic research, Indigenous peoples, cross- and trans-border cooperative projects, culture, etc.
