Vying for Arctic Sovereignty

"We got pinched. You're clearing a path, but the ice moves in and we got pinched."
"By the next morning they said 'We can build a new one out of spare parts'. We called it the Frankenstreamer. It wasn't pretty, but it worked."
"It all pulled it together in making a complete package and, I think, convincing arguments as to why this continental margin is part of the land mass [of Canada in the Arctic]."
"It's connected to the Canadian continental margin off of Ellesmere Island -- physically connected."
Mary-Lynn Dickson, lead scientist, report  to the United Nations

"It's [China]  after global influence, including in the Arctic."
"Arctic countries can't say no to investments. That's clear."
"We want to be sure we know what China is after."
Aleksi Harkonen, Finlandic ambassador for Arctic affairs

Jonathan Hayward / The Canadian Press

What China is after? What it has focused on everywhere in the world; increased visibility, recognition, trade, energy sources, raw materials -- power. To that end, it has created its blueprint to achieve all of that in the hope and expectation that it will lead to outpacing the United States as the world's most powerful economy through the full implementation of China's ambitious "One road, One belt" project, or: All Roads Lead To China.

And to realize this goal, China is making massive investments, extending large amounts of credit in countries from Asia to Africa and Europe in its bid to scoop up opportunities to advance its agenda. In so doing, China is making countries in struggling economic development massively indebted to it to repay funding it has advanced for costly infrastructure in roads, bridges, ports and other avenues of opening trade options.

Even Russia, its traditional rival and sparring partner, has not been exempt from China's blandishments of investment and cooperation. Retreating Arctic sea ice has created the potential for new shipping lanes that will cut transit time and cost substantially across the globe. New economic and strategic ties with Russia sees Chinese crews drilling for gas under the Kara Sea off the Russian northern coast.

Russia is a powerful Arctic power, one of eight nations whose direct geological prominence in the Arctic gives them sovereign claim to 200 nautical miles offshore as their exclusive economic zones. The United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is the official adjudicator between the Arctic nations claiming their rights and to whom each of those nations -- Sweden, Norway, Russia, Canada, United States, Denmark, Iceland and Finland have submitted their science-based claims in preparation to negotiate terms of acceptance.

China has bystander status, but no geological proximity claims and is piggy-backing on Russia's claim for its own partnership access to energy and mineral rights extraction. Chinese cargo ships maneuver through the ice packs off Russia, a new Northern Passage they have named the Polar Silk Road, and have recently launched China's second icebreaker, the Snow Dragon 2. Asia's largest country as far from the Arctic as it is, in possession of two icebreakers.

Beijing hasn't stopped at investments only in Russia where billions have been invested in extracting energy from beneath the Yamal Peninsula in northern Russia's permafrost, where China is drilling for gas in Russian waters right alongside Gazprom, Russian's gas exploration giant. China is also prospecting for minerals in Greenland, with Huawei hoping to partner with a Finnish company to lay a new undersea Internet cable connecting Northern Europe to Asia.

Russia and Canada as well as Denmark are competing for recognition of sovereignty over the Lomosonov Shelf that extends from all three countries far out into the Arctic. Canada has just submitted its 2,100-page geological-scientific report to the UN arguing for control over a vast region of the Arctic sea floor, challenging Russia's claim. Dr. Dickson as the lead scientist on the icebreaker being used to delve the depths, described the third expedition north of Ellesmere Island where sea ice had clipped the team's underwaqter microphone, a streamer.

The instrument's use is to record signals rebounding off the sea floor. With the absence of the streamer the expedition was unable to produce the study results that Canada's claim would be partially built upon. The crew's technical team went to work and with spare parts produced a replacement, enabling Canada to make a strong case for the North Pole as part of Canada's Northern Arctic reach.

From the Canadian Coast Guard's Louis St.Laurent, the scientific team set out to prove the shelf is connected to Canada's land mass. Prodding the bottom of the sea through thousands of metres of icy water, researchers observed the thickness and origin of sediment layers, measurements were made of water depth. Geochemistry was analyzed, deciphering the type, age and structures of rocks hauled up from the deep. "They're so precious they're like moon rocks", observed Dr. Dickson.

The modern sea floor was reconstructed from its origins from ancient tectonic plates with comparisons made of the rocks, with data collected on High Arctic islands. The vessel the science team worked on made its way through ice so tough it stopped two icebreakers; so unpredictable two locator beacons were lost when the ice pan they were stationed on drifted away, to be recovered nine months later east of Greenland by the Danish navy.

Paleo Pathogens in the Russian Arctic

"Anthrax spores can stay alive in the permafrost for up to 2,500 years. That's scary given the thawing of animal burial grounds from the 19th Century."
"When they are taken out of the permafrost and put into our temperatures, they revive."
"If the area of these emissions overlaps with the burials of animals or humans who died from diseases in previous centuries, these spores and pathogens could spread over a huge area."
"It would be a disaster not just for the Arctic. The catastrophe could exceed Chernobyl."
Biologist Boris Kershengolts, Yakutsk, Russia

A man is surrounded by dogs as he walks on the main street of the settlement of Oy, some 70 km south of Yakutsk, with the air temperature at about minus 41 degrees Celsius, on November 27, 2018. (Photo by Mladen ANTONOV / AFP)

An empty lot situated in the center of Yakutsk, in the Russian Arctic, was slated for a construction site when it occurred to authorities that anthrax spores preserved in permafrost -- permanently frozen soil, buried there with cattle and other animals in a past age could conceivably be released and become active disease threats to the population. Specialists concluded that it would be safe to build a skate park on the lot. It was a lot that at one time held a laboratory for the production of an anthrax serum.

Which knowledge served to raise additional questions relating to the ancient disease known to be present within the permafrost. The permafrost that has been undergoing change, gradually melting as Climate Change progresses. A situation which inevitably led to the further train of speculative thought, linking the spectre of global warming to the potential threat of the sleeping spores of a known and fearful lethal disease being reactivated.

Yakutsk residents cross a field that some have claimed was a cattle burial ground, although the authorities have said it was a laboratory  Credit: Maria Turchenkova/For The Telegraph

Yakutsk is beginning to experience environmental warming as the coldest city on Earth, whose winter temperatures have been known to plummet below -60C. That warming could conceivably herald the destruction of infrastructure built on the permafrost and becoming increasingly destabilized, the dormant disease being revived eventually not beyond the realm of possibility. This potential is coinciding with the arrival of more people manning new military bases, along with oil and gas facilities.

Vladimir Putin announced last week at an Arctic forum in St.Petersburg that a new Arctic development strategy was being carried forward, promising to increase investment in tax breaks and subsidized ice-breaker escorts through the Northeast Passage. Russia's geography is vast, the largest land mass in the world of any nation on Earth. Of that land mass, two-thirds of Russian territory is comprised of permafrost -- virtually the entire region of Yakutia, where the permafrost depth can be measured hundreds of feet in depth.

Vladimir Nikolaev and Klim Kirensky examine permafrost in the tunnels of the underground laboratory at the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk Credit: Maria Turchenkova/For The Telegraph

The active top layer of permafrost comprised of the top few feet that each yea thaws and refreezes, is now entering its thawing stage earlier, and to a greater depth. The shrinkage in central Yakutia measures one to 5 centimetres annually, and to a greater amount in urban areas, according to the Melnikov Permafrost Institute. Since 1955 precipitation has increased 70 percent throughout Yakutia which thickens the blanket of snow insulating the ground from the cold air, serving to exacerbate the thaw situation.

Foundations in Yakutsk are growing increasingly unsteady on their 8- to 12-metre stilts driven through the top layer of permafrost to the more stable permafrost beneath; many building walls are visibly cracking from destabilization. Thousands of oil and gas pipelines break in Russia, as a result of thawing permafrost. And that thaw has led to at least one disease epidemic where the "Siberian plague" known to ravage livestock and people in previous centuries has returned.

Valentin Sorov stands near the frozen Lena River below a house three feet from the bank, which is eroding more quickly due to thawing permafrost and increased precipitation Credit: Maria Turchenkova/For The Telegraph

Anthrax typically infects animals through plants or water they consume containing naturally-occurring bacteria in the soil which has led to periodic outbreaks of anthrax throughout history. By breathing, drinking, eating or coming into contact with the spores, or becoming infected through an open cut, people often develop blisters with a black centre. Should vomiting and bloody diarrhea result and not be treated in a timely manner with antibiotics those complications can become deadly.

In 2015, an unusual warming spurt of up to 35 C took place in the Arctic region of Yamal, when an estimated two thousand reindeer died and 96 people were hospitalized, while a 12-year-old boy died after eating infected raw venison. According to experts, the "appearance of anthrax was stimulated by the activation of 'old' infection sites following anomalously high air temperature and the thawing of the sites to a depth beyond normal levels." It is feasible for anthrax spores to lie dormant underground and when temperatures warm to 15 C, conditions for their reproduction are created.

Researchers have in addition discovered smallpox DNA fragments on bodies in the Russian permafrost and RNA from 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, in Alaska. The concern also is that those people involved in Yaktia's woolly mammoth tusk trade could pick up "paleo-pathogens" -- prehistoric diseases humans may never have encountered -- after the discovery of live bacteria in mammoth remains frozen for 20,000 years.

An explorer stands near a newly formed crater on the Yamal Peninsula

Canada's Far North -- Tuktoyaktuk

"You go through ecosystems. You'll be in forest and valley, and then you'll pop up and you'll climb over a mountain range, but you're above the tree line."
"It's total unobstructed views of these huge valleys, right into summits."
"[As Canadians], we're so focused on Halifax, Vancouver and everything in between. There are great areas of our country that are north that we never get to."
Drew Mitchell, Callander, Ontario

Waves from an August 2018 storm that caused four metres of land to erode in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T.   Courtesy of Dustin Whalen, Natural Resources Canada

The finishing touches on the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway was completed by construction workers in 2017, representing an ambitious and difficult project funded primarily by the Conservative-led government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The $300-million , two-lane, gravel road is Canada's first all-weather road to the Arctic Ocean. Under the Harper government, there was an unprecedented focus on Canada's far north, with a view to development and opening up the territory to more potential habitation.

Up to the creation of the two-lane highway, access to northern places like Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories in the Inuvik region was achieved by plane. In a typical year, about 1,500 tourists and others might make the trip. Since the opening of the highway, that number has soared to 7,000 visitors last summer. And with tourism heating up, the commercial potential of the hamlet has responded with the opening of several more businesses.

Hamlet officials say 30 to 50 vehicles are driving the Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Highway each day to reach the community of about 900 people. (Mackenzie Scott/CBC)

Local Tuk artisans producing traditional Inuit arts and crafts now have a larger, more enthusiastic market for their products. Tuk has five bed-and-breakfast operations where Americans, Europeans, South Americans -- and Canadians -- come to look around, to touch the Arctic Ocean, to see pingos, mounds of permafrost topped with soil at a national landmark close by the hamlet.

When Drew Mitchell and his wife drove from Whitehorse in the Yukon, they did so with a twofold purpose in mind; to see a stretch of Canada not uppermost in the minds of most who want to travel to an exotic location, and to get married in Tuk. A visit to the hamlet, apart from being a visual revelation of life in the far north, can also become the stage for witnessing nature in the raw.

Local artist Joe Nasogaluak performed with the Siglit Drummers and Dancers at the recent wedding of a couple who chose Tuktoyaktuk for their destination wedding. (Mario De Ciccio/Radio-Canada)

The Inuvialuit hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk is a venue where the Arctic from July to September can be thrust into violent storm conditions where tempests suddenly appear and winds roar and waves thrash the coastline to splash off rocks and erode the shoreline. Seriously erode the shoreline. To the extent where those among the hamlet's 900 residents who prefer to live by the water have seen the ocean come perilously close to their back doors.

Powerful storms lashing the Arctic and thawing permafrost see the coastline eroding amazingly swiftly so that uninhabited islands begin to disappear under the sea. On the Alaska side, some villages have been forced to relocate their entire communities to higher ground moving inland; in 2003 a place called Newtok and Shishmaref in 2016.

In August 2018, a powerful windstorm caused four metres of land to erode in a coastal neighbourhood in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T. The storm exposed an underground layer of permafrost and brought the Beaufort Sea within a few feet of the area’s remaining homes. Dustin Whalen, Natural Resources Canada

Tuktoyaktuk is getting to that stage. For the past 15 years, government physical scientist Dustin Whalen has based his research on erosion in the north, stationed in Tuk, not the only community where the seas are encroaching and swamping buildings to the extent that people begin to consider moving; it happens even in Nova Scotia, according to Dr. Whalen, where his much of his research is also conducted.

Last August Dr. Whalen while in Tuk, in a rented house several hundred metres from the shore, was forced to hunker down for a few days inside that house, unable to venture outside because of a storm with violent winds. When it eventually subsided he and the ten scientists with him emerged to begin calculating how far the shoreline had receded from just that single storm and found the difference to be four metres, tripling the annual erosion recorded in previous years.

Tuk Housing

Where land had been, the researchers saw exposed permafrost, protruding from its usual underground presence and now susceptible to being washed away by succeeding storms as they continue coming through. Tuk's mayor, Merven Gruben has plans to sidestep any worst-case scenario by lifting the exposed houses on the shoreline on skids to be tugged away from imminent danger. And to ultimately be relocated elsewhere.

"You can't fight nature", he said resignedly. "All we can do is adapt. Our people are very good at adapting."

The Timeless Inuit Historian

"They were finding stuff that she [his great-grandmother] later realized were muskets, or a rifle; spoons and forks, ropes and chains."
"Then they noticed there was a mound the length of a human being, and there stood a stone with strange markings on it."
"She realized that was a grave. Going back to her time, the Inuit had never buried their dead under the ground; they just wrapped them in skins, and the animals would come and take the bodies away. That was the belief, that  you died, and you go back into the world."
Louie Kamookak, Inuit historian, Nunavut, Canada

Louie Kamookak was a champion of a long overlooked Inuit oral tradition that, in time, became a key component in the most significant archaeological find in contemporary Canadian history: the discovery of the lost Franklin ships. Courtesy Louie Kamookak

"Louie played a critical role in the successes we have seen in the last five years with the discovery of both of [Sir John] Franklin's lost vessels."
"I refer to Louie as the last great Franklin searcher -- he was devoted to this search for decades."
"There was a very long period where the Inuit accounts related to the expedition were ignored entirely. Louie was working methodically, and very much alone, for 30 years -- trying to compare the historical search accounts with contemporary stories from elders, to create a picture of what really happened [to the ill-fated Franklin expedition search for the Arctic North -West Passage]."
"But it wasn't until the latter part of his life that the Inuit tradition had begun to be taken as seriously as it always should have been."
"I find it unbelievable that Louie is gone. ...as recently as last November he was planning to go back into the field and pursue some leads in the search for Franklin's remains."
"He never lost  his interest. He never lost his great love -- as a teacher -- and as someone who had all the attributes of an elder."
John Geiger, chief executive officer, Royal Canadian Geographical Society

If it were not for this man's respect for his heritage, for his elders, for his insatiable curiosity and his urge to unveil mysteries based on his instinct for discovery, the two ships that Sir John Franklin sailed from Britain to the Arctic -- to finally find the elusive North-West Passage that had puzzled and evaded others before  him and to which enterprise he had committed himself to end his long career with distinction with the British Admiralty -- would never have been found.

The Franklin Expedition, like others that had preceded him on a similar mission -- and those that followed his absence in search of his whereabouts and that of his doomed crew, had some interaction on occasion with the people of that frozen land whose survival skills they did little to emulate. The presence of white Europeans in the Arctic and their strange occupations, ill-suited clothing and gear, caught the attention of the Inuit as curiosities; the oral history of their observations lived on long after the explorers and the Inuit of the time did.

Louie Kamookak was fascinated, listening to his great-grandparents near his own home of Fjoa Haven a community on King William Island, when he would visit with them. He was born in 1960 and his grandmother recounted her memory of herself as a child borne on her father's shoulders when they came across a remote ridge strewn with artefacts reflecting the presence in the late 1840s of foreigners on a mission.

He was so intrigued that as he become an adult he kept pursuing the history of that strange encounter, in the process  himself becoming an amateur historian, a teacher, and an obsessed collector of Inuit stories. He renewed the heritage tradition of Inuit oral history and in so doing preserved a history of immense interest to Canadians as an important part of the country's northern discoveries. And with the knowledge that he had amassed, he proved to be the missing link that guided researchers to the very area where Franklin's expedition unravelled.

Canadian history was changed forever, thanks to this man whose vital information made possible the archaeological discovery of the whereabouts of Franklin's two lost ships, the Terror and the Erebus, all that was left of his 1945 expedition. Expeditions were launched one after the other, in a determined search for Franklin and his crew, hoping they could be rescued; at the very least, the mystery of their disappearance solved, but it was not to be. His wife used her contacts in high places to launch one search after another, to no avail.

A 19th century painting by Francois Etienne shows the HMS Erebus in the ice. National Maritime Museum

But Louie Kamookak  undertook to accomplish what British determination could not. He gathered the stories of Inuit elders, cross-referencing them with contemporary accounts of British searchers and in so doing came to understand how and where the Franklin ships might conceivably be located, a discovery that only someone who understood the landscape as well as he did, in possession of vital clues, could arrive at. This priceless information he shared with archaeologists, making possible the discovery of the ships' location.

He spread  his knowledge far and wide, speaking to academics, school groups, journalists and bureaucrats, helping them to understand that sometimes answers to questions that elude the learned and the intelligent could be in the possession of those whose learning and intelligence they had historically spurned, feeling nothing of any value could arise from those sources; the typical reaction of people who feel themselves unaccountably superior to others.

Canadian Focus on the Arctic

"I've been asked if I'm worried about one of those Russian Arctic battalions marching in here. I am worried -- but its because if they did that we would have to launch the biggest search-and-rescue mission we've ever done."
"If that was my sovereign territory [where about 12 million Russian citizens live near or in its Arctic region] I'd do the same."
"It's not about 'fixed bayonets' in the North."
"Operation NUNALIVUT 2018 is more than winter warfare training. It is a unique opportunity for deployed members to conduct sovereignty patrols, ice diving activities and support the scientific community. Regular and Reserve members of the Canadian Armed Forces will come together with other government departments and agencies to cooperatively work on multiple objectives during the coldest period of the year in the Arctic."
Brig.-Gen. Mike Nixon, commander, Joint Task Force North, Operation Nunalivut

"We're learning a lot from the Rangers."
"It's wild here. It's a big eye-opener to see the High Arctic."
Major Jason Hudson, Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry

Canadian Forces Capt. Phillip Jones surveys the military camp established at Intrepid Bay during Operation Nunalivut. The camp was home for members of the 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, the Arctic Response Company Group from 38 Canadian Brigade Group and the 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group. David Pugliese/Postmedia

"The Arctic is unforgiving" says Captain Shawn Claire of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, a unit among others taking part in this year's Operation Nunalivut, a month-long annual exercise in Canada's Arctic. "She will claim lives and she will claim limbs", he stated. The Arctic Response Company Group from 38 Canadian Brigade Group and the 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group along with the PPCLI, some 350 members of the Canadian military in all, are at Resolute Bay conducting Arctic survival training, sovereignty patrols and scientific research.

All are also testing their ability to survive in the Arctic.

Temperatures at Resolute Bay during the months of January and February drop to around -65C to -70C at night, a temperature where it takes all of two minutes for exposed skin to succumb to frostbite. Wearing goggles and face masks the troops are equipped to withstand the extreme temperatures. At the time of their deployment from the end of February to March 22, the temperature hovered around -40C. Trucks must be kept running full time to ensure they can be operative; it is too problematic to start them in the frigid extremes.

Master Corp. Matthew Manik teaches soldiers how to build a snow wall to block the wind from their tent. David Pugliese/Postmedia

The month was spent conducting Arctic survival techniques among other concerns, and gave navy personnel the opportunity to test their ability to dive under ice. International interest in the far North has accelerated in the last few years. China released an official Arctic strategy, with plans to spend up to $1-trillion, in the development of polar regions in their eagerness to develop new trade routes as well as ports in the Arctic. It has no territorial claims, however, on the oil, gas or mineral resources known to be present in the area.

Russia does have such claims. And it is busy expanding military bases in their own northern territory to the extent of creating new battalions to operate in the Arctic. Brig.Gen. Nixon is convinced the Russian investments geared toward renewed infrastructure and bases as broad as it seems, is in reality a fraction of what it spent during the Cold War. An unsettled dispute around Russian claims to the Continental shelf just happens to coincide with Canada's claims to much of that same area.

Researchers surveyed and mapped Canada's northern continental shelf aboard CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent. (Natural Resources Canada)

Logistics represent another giant challenge to operating in the Arctic, beyond survival, but inextricably linked to survival. Giant C-17 and Boeing 737s along with C-130 Hercules aircraft are utilized in the transport of equipment and food. The Arctic Training Centre in Resolute Bay would be incapable of operating without its needs being filled where each summer ships carry in 60,000 litres of fuel to operate military snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles.

Opened in 2013, the training centre represents a major hub for northern military operations. Hugely and solely dependent on large diesel-powered generators to provide electricity needed not only for the military bases but for the 24 residential communities in Nunavut. And those generators, needless to say, require hundreds of thousands of litres of fuel. The deployment of the annual military mission takes eight months in the planning stages.

Canada's northern population is a little over 200,000, most located in a few population centres like Yellowknife and Whitehorse, the remainder in small communities. Cambridge Bay has a population base of around 1,700 while Resolute Bay's population is roughly 200 people. North of Resolute at Intrepid Bay, soldiers have established a small camp where they conduct patrols out of and test the resupply system. Patrols are carried out on snowmobiles to prevent an energetic buildup of perspiration that can result in frostbite.

Military mechanics must deal with constant mechanical breakdowns of machinery in this extreme climate. Reliance by regular troops on the Canadian Rangers cannot be overstated. The Rangers are comprised largely of Indigenous people, along with 4,000 reservists operating across the Canadian North. The Rangers teach soldiers, among other skills of northern survival techniques, how to build  wind blocks from snow, and best practices in maintaining snowmobiles running in extreme cold.

Also deployed are scientists from Defence Research and Development Canada and from Natural Resources Canada, who are examining whether batteries that can be recharged from a snowmobile could help make life less complicated for troops for the provision of light, heat and cooking. In a ten-person military tent at present, a Coleman gas stove and lantern are kept on all night so that while it is -55C outside the tent, heat from stove and lantern raise interior temperature in the tent to around freezing.

The Canadian Rangers -- like Master Corporal Matthew Manik, 36, an Inuit whose long traditions and lifestyle skills are so valuable to understanding how to survive in the North -- are regarded as the critical eyes and ears for the Canadian Forces.

Canadian troops operating in the far North rely on Canadian Rangers, such as Master Corp. Matthew Manik, who taught soldiers how to survive in the Arctic. David Pugliese/Postmedia

Cold and Dark, But It's Home

"Norilsk is a unique city. It was put here by force."
"It is like a survivor. If it had not been for Norilsk, there would have been another principle of life in the Arctic: You came, you worked, you froze = and you left."
Alexander Kharitonov, owner, printing house

"Everything else [beyond the city] is a vast wild land with a wild nature and no people."
"This is where the last wild mammoths died. When they dug the foundations of the buildings, they found the bones of mammoths."
Vladimir Larin, scientist, Norilsk

Due to its location, Norilsk might appear even more isolated than other arctic cities, without ground connections with the rest of the world. The air is the only way to reach it, together with seaway and river boats when the navigation is possible

It was once a dark, frozen, isolated gulag. That was during Soviet times, when Stalin had subversives, enemies of the state and just pure unfortunates sent to this remote city in northern Siberia to work as slave labourers. It was a vast slave prison, part of Stalin's infamous Gulag, where harsh punishment was meted out to people enslaved in a harsh landscape between 1925 and 1956. At its height, an estimated 650,000 prisoners were sent to the camp known as Norillag.

They must have thought they were in Hell, in a place that was perpetually dark throughout the long winter months from late November to June where the sun is never seen and the polar winter is brutal and they worked until they dropped. It was thought that during the two decades of its use, 250,000 of the prisoners died of overwork, of starvation of the effects on the human body of continual exposure to misery and cold, where the temperature was known to drop to minus 62 Celsius.

The place was closed by Nikita Khrushchev in 1956, when human rights became a recognized issue and the-then President dismantled Stalin's slave labour camps. Even so, no foreign visitors may even now access the city without a permit issued by Russia's Federal Security Service. What any foreigner would see if he ventured there now would be a thriving city of 174,000 people living there year-round; a population comprised of descendants of some of the labourers and of the majority who came voluntarily, lured by the prospect of high salaries and the stark beauty of the place.

The city is well populated but the wilderness extending beyond it is uninhabited wilderness for the most part. When winter breaks, and the two months of darkness relent, melting snow brings buried remains of the prisoners to the surface. The city is so remote only plane or boat on the Arctic Ocean offer passage out.

Those who came for the steady work on offer do hard, well-remunerated labour in Norilsk's metallurgical industry, a large complex of mines and smelters representing Norilsk Nickel a former state company since privatized, the world's largest producer of the rare metal palladium as well as a supplier of nickel copper and other metals. In recognition of difficult living and working conditions there are 90 days of paid holiday time, and retirement age is set at 45.

Every year, more than 2 million tons of gas (mainly dioxide sulfur, but also nitrogen oxides, carbon and phenols) are expelled into the atmosphere

Move than 6,000 square kilometers have been turned into a dead zone characterized by dead trees, by mud and snow. More sulfur dioxide is belched out of the company's chimneys that what all of France produces in a year. Its residents, however, are proud of their city and their ability to survive in a harsh environment. Lake Dolgoye even has its dedicated contingent of swimmers eager for the bracing experience when they dip into its icy waters in a lake that only partially freezes; where hot water pipes from a power plant warms it to below freezing.

The Norilsk’s citizens suffer ‘the polar night syndrome’, resulting in anxiety, nervousness, drowsiness or insomnia, depending of the seasons, while the psychological discomfort and poor emotional stimuli also generate many cases of depression. Pictured in January locals celebrate Epiphany by swimming in Lake Norilsk

There are some newly-introduced social amenities in the city, such as Internet service, and the presence of the Norilsk College of Arts, as well as the Norilsk Greenhouse growing fresh product in heated greenhouses. There is home brew available and live music at the Zaboi Bar whose owner claims to struggle with the climate, dreading returning to the city after being away, yet never failing to return to the city he "really do[es] not want to go back" to.

This huge pollution has a strong influence on the people’s health. Life expectancy is 10 years less than in other regions of Russia, the risk of cancer is two time higher and respiratory diseases are widespread

“It is really impossible to emphasize just how otherworldly this place was. Most people, including the city's nuns and head doctors, claim that those from Norilsk have better health. And this is without mentioning that all nature in a radius almost the size of Germany is dead from severe air pollution. I already knew that the people of Norilsk loved their hometown, but I didn't expect them to so openly contradict medical findings [of cancer ten times the rate elsewhere in Russia].”
Victoria Fiore, filmmaker

Many buildings have been gradually abandoned 

Simply Pitifully Misunderstood

"[There are the] vexing issues such as the Kremlin's seizure of Crimea, setting eastern Ukraine aflame and constantly menacing Poland and the Baltic states. This is precisely what the Kremlin has been loudly demanding for years in an unconcealed effort to divide the West."
"There are many other poisonous new elements to Russia's faltering relations with the West. They include the recent bombing of a UN humanitarian convoy in Syria, the sustained aerial bombardment of the ruins of Aleppo, persistent cyberwarfare against European allies and, according to the United States, the recent cyberhacking of Democratic Party computers to interfere with the U.S. presidential campaign."
Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News

"You know, it's very difficult to have a dialogue with the incumbent US administration. There's almost no dialogue at all. What does it look like? The US administration sets forth its requirements and then insists we should meet them. This is no dialogue, this is some kind of dictate. And that is what's going on with almost each issue."
"We have never wanted that to happen. On the contrary, we wanted to have friendly relations with such a great country as the United States, the leading economy of the world."
"We see what is going on. These are completely unfounded accusations. They accuse Russia of all mortal sins and crimes. But we know who carried out the strike on the humanitarian convoy - it was a terrorist organisation. And we know that the Americans know it too. But they prefer to have another stance on it, and engage into unfounded accusations against Russia."
"This method of running international affairs [The U.S. attempting to force a ceasefire in Syria] is called pressure and blackmail."  
"It is not our partners, who should get offended about our veto of the French resolution [over Syria]. It is us, who should get offended."
Russian President Vladimir V. Putin

Vladimir Putin believes that the complicated dialogue with Washington can be explained with the fact that it resembles an attempt of the US to impose its own terms on Russia  --- AP photo 

From engagement with other Arctic powers, Canada, Norway, United States, Denmark, Finland, Iceland -- Moscow chose to flamboyantly stage a spectacular to emphasize its singular entitlement: planting a titanium Russian tricolour flag on the floor of the Arctic seabed at the North Pole so no one could in error misunderstand which country had awarded itself the booty to be extracted in minerals, ores and fossil fuels in a territorial dispute that requires diplomatic interaction, not presumptive pressures of ownership, Vladimir Putin rolls the dice.

While oil was still selling at a favoured price on the world market the trillion rubles that the Kremlin spent on updating its armaments for the military, the establishment of a new network of military bases across Siberia, the plans to place an army division in eastern Siberia, and the deployment of a new battery of nuclear-powered ice breakers and silent submarines in the Arctic represented a full and brash display of Moscow's intentions, sans diplomatic discussions. Displaying Putin's mastery of chess moves.

The seizure of Crimea was simply a long-overdue settling of accounts, restoring to Mother Russia what was its to begin with, a sacred peninsula of heritage value, returned to its place, the beating heart of Russia. Ukraine? a satellite that has forgotten its purpose, and simply required reminding. The menace that Poland and the Baltic states claim to be emanating across their borders from rapacious Russia is simply their overactive imaginations, their base guilt at having abandoned the country that nurtured them.

From the Baltic to the Black Sea, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have forgotten what they owe to Russia, and simply needed a few reminders which the Kremlin obligingly provided. This is Russia's geographic region; the presence of NATO forces is a provocation too far. A declaration of intent nudging close to a call for all-out war, and Russia is prepared. The ultimatum put to Washington to have all troops and infrastructure from NATO nations bordering Russia removed; to have sanctions lifted, and to offer compensation for economic damages, is the price for the resumption of friendly relations.

Since NATO feels comfortable in giving military assurance to eastern Europe, Russia feels equally comfortable in basing SS-26 Iskander missiles with or without nuclear warheads in Kaliningrad. At this juncture, sweetly neutral Sweden is mulling over making application to join NATO as it reintroduces conscription and invites women to join the draft. Norway plans to increase defence spending and it, Denmark and the U.S. await delivery of new generation F-35 fighter jets.

The world is an uneasy place with the resurgence of Russian confidence and a president in whom Russians take immense pride, unafraid to contest the proud nation's detractors.

The Environmentalist President

"Arctic ecosystems are among the most pristine and understudied in the world, meaning increased commercial activity comes with significant risks to the environment."
"The growth of human activity in the Arctic region will require highly engaged stewardship to maintain the open seas necessary for global commerce and scientific research, allow for search-and-rescue activities, and provide for regional peace and stability."
Obama White House

An oil drilling rig arrives aboard a transport ship, following a journey across the Pacific, Friday, April 17, 2015, in view of the Olympic Mountains in Port Angeles, Wash. (Daniella Beccaria/seattlepi.com via AP)

"It's the biggest buildup of the Russian military since the Cold War. They're reopening ten bases and building four more, and they're all in the Arctic, so here we are in the middle of the pond, feeling a little bit uncomfortable."
Alaska Governor Bill Walker, Anchorage

Rumour is that U.S. President Obama is on the cusp of ruling finally on Canada's Keystone XL oil pipeline. All the previous State Department clearances aside, the country whose carbon record for burning dirty coal remains concerned over Alberta's 'oilsands'. The seven-year delay has resulted from his determination to look good to the environmentalists who support his vision of the climate Apocalypse, and his intention to leave an enviable legacy as the world's premier environmental visionary.

So, what gives, with the announcement that it's perfectly all right to enter the pristine environment of the Arctic with oil drilling equipment...? Shell to be permitted to drill for oil 8,000 feet below the Arctic seabed off the coast of Alaska. While feting Mr. Obama over his hostility to Keystone, environmental groups are puzzling over this unanticipated turn of events.

"It sends a terrible signal to the rest of the world for the United States to be using public resources to promote that development", stated Niel Lawrence of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Mr. Obama's justification to proceed with oil exploration in the Arctic, that the U.S. will require the oil "is rooted in the assumption that next to nothing will be done to tackle the global climate crisis", observes Hannah McKinnon of Oil Change International.

The construction of a pipeline across a few Midwestern states which already have similar lines in place, and with years of building experience dealing with such pipelines is considered a greater threat than a drilling rig thousands of miles in the Chukchi Sea, navigable about four months of the year, where some of the world's harshest weather is experienced. U.S. Coast Guard rescued 18 oil workers in 2012 when a giant Shell rig broke free and ran aground in stormy seas.

"I would rather us, with all the safeguards and standards that we have, be producing our oil and gas, rather than importing it, which is bad for our people, but is also potentially purchased from places that have much lower environmental standards than we do", Mr. Obama asserted, as though the Deepwater Horizon disaster only five years ago had never happened, killing 11 workers, taking 87 days to control.

The American Coast Guard fleet is an aging one, and there are only two ice breakers at the disposal of the Coast Guard. Russia has 41 icebreakers and plans to add another 11. Canada has two heavy icebreakers for the Arctic coast, with another on the way. Obama's grandiose vision of environmental stability under his watch is a grand lesson in hypocrisy.

The Audacity of Certainty

"It is ironic that the only country that right now could be said to be acting provocatively in the Arctic is Denmark."
"It doesn't exercise self-restraint. ... A lot of people are surprised they went for the whole enchilada."
"Everyone's going for everything they can at this stage. The area that's under dispute has grown very large."
Michel Byers, Vancouver academic, author of Who Owns the Arctic?

"I don't think the Russians or the Danes, once it came up to the political leadership, ever really intended to do that [divide the Arctic Ocean with geological data].
Rob Huebert, University of Calgary, Centre for Military and Strategic Studies

A Canadian Navy Zodiac races across the Arctic Ocean on patrol at the southern tip of Baffin Island, Canada, on August 09, 2007 (AFP Photo/Michel Comte)

Strange, Dr. Huebert's suggestion that Moscow had no intention of claiming sovereignty over part of the Arctic that Denmark now does with an air of self-indulgent certainty, since Denmark's geological claim with respect to the Lomonosov Ridge, that underwater mountain range, is precisely the geological feature that Moscow has used in its claims, disputing Canada's long-time claims of a vast ownership area.

Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker "Yamal" photographed in the Arctic Ocean. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Still, that said, and the impudent planting of a platinum Russian flag by a submarine on the Arctic ocean floor aside, the five traditional aspirants to ownership division of the Arctic with its vast treasury of natural resources in minerals and fossil fuels: Russia, Canada, the United States, Denmark and Norway seemed prepared for a contested, but somewhat equal division.

Until Denmark landed the United Nations with its claim to roughly one third of the total, and throwing in the North Pole for good measure. Denmark has relied on a $64-million investment in scientific research (part of which was co-jointly carried out with Canada) to support its claim that the Lomonosov Ridge is a geological extension of Greenland. Moscow must be wincing.

The Danes now claim an 895,000-square kilometre piece of the Arctic Ocean; their 'share' right at the edge of Russian geography. Thousands of hectares of resource-rich sea floor once claimed by Russia is now claimed with aplomb by tiny Denmark. In that area an estimated 13 percent of the world's total in undiscovered oil and 30 percent of untapped gas is held to exist, ripe for exploitation.

Dr. Byers is of the firm opinion that it won't take long for Russia, staggering under the weight of its recent misfortunes and its shrinking economy, to file a counter-suit for the very same territory. Canada's claim to areas considered international, although traditionally viewed by Canada as theirs, is not yet completed, but the government is planning a claim for 1.2-million square kilometres of ocean. North Pole included.

The UN panel has been tasked with deciding where control of the area should be officially assigned, with the use of scientific data filed by covetous, contesting countries to arrive at their final decisions. That is a process that Dr. Byers feels will take up to 20 years before the boundaries in the Arctic reach final disposition.

"All governments with potential claims are doing precisely what their citizens would expect and demand from them: making the strongest possible case to advance the national cause."
"Denmark is doing precisely what Canada and Russia are doing."
Ken Coates, director, International Centre for Northern Governance and Development, Saskatchewan

Who Owns The Arctic? What is a Debris Flow? What Causes a Tsunami? Mineral Rights

The United Nations sought to bring order and equity to the diversity of claims being made by nations around the world. In 1982 a United Nations treaty known as "The Law of the Sea" was presented. It addressed navigational rights, territorial waters limits, exclusive economic zones, fishing, pollution, drilling, mining, conservation and many other aspects of maritime activity. With over 150 nations participating it was the first attempt by the international community to establish a formal agreement on how the seas can be used. It also proposes a logical allocation of ocean resources.

A Franklin Moment

"This is an expression of sincere interest. He [Prime Minister Stephen Harper] had more than a layman's knowledge of the history. He displayed a deep knowledge and his passion was genuine."
"The ice conditions were very severe. Victoria Strait was ice-clogged; it was heavy ice."
"It was an area where the Inuit oral tradition indicated one of the ships might have ended up."
"They [Parks Canada staff] said, 'That's it!' I think they celebrated. They hugged each other Everyone was very excited, but I felt personally a real sense of poignancy, because you look at that vessel and think about the fact that there are likely people on it. So many people died - 129 died -- the greatest disaster related to exploration [in Arctic history]."
"So to me, in thinking about how those lives ended in that situation is quite haunting."
"The main deck is largely intact. That's a very good sign that there's information within the hold."
"...There's all kinds of detail, right down to visible signal cannons on it. It's going to be at least another week. The divers are back in two days, and then you will see some close-up imagery."
John Geiger, president, Royal Canadian Geographical Society

A sonar image of the discovered Franklin vessel.
Parks Canada / Ottawa Citizen

"I am delighted to announce that this year's Victoria Strait Expedition has solved one of Canada's greatest mysteries, with the discovery of one of the two ships belonging to the Franklin expedition lost in 1846."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ryan Harris, Senior Underwater Archeologist for Parks Canada, stand in front of an image of one of the ships belonging to the ill-fated Franklin Expedition which was lost in 1846, eptember 9, 2014. (Jean Levac / Ottawa Citizen)

Historians muse over the fact that Sir John Franklin was given that fateful commission by the British Admiralty, to begin with, though he had been credited with three previous Arctic trips. At the point where he embarked on that ill-fated trip with the two ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, he was overweight, not in the best of health, and fairly advanced in age to captain such an expedition.

When he failed to return, Britain sent out a series of expeditions to 'rescue' Franklin and his crew. And Lady Jane Franklin, his second wife, used all her elite social contacts to urge the government to commit to further searches, yet none revealed any substantial evidence of what had occurred to her husband and the 129 men who accompanied him.

Several days earlier, sea ice had intervened to push the expedition in search of Franklin's ships, headed by Parks Canada and joined by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the W. Garfield Weston Foundation, One Ocean Expeditions, Shell Canada and the Arctic Research Foundation off course.

The remotely-steered submersible with advanced sonar technology found itself suddenly directly over one of the very ships it was avidly searching for. The image of a ship's hull on the ocean bottom was clearly indicated to the two Parks Canada staffers on duty when the underwater drone made its discovery.

This was the sixth such expedition in search of the Erebus and Terror since it became a goal for the current government to solve the mystery, in 2008. Drones had already scanned kilometre on kilometre of ocean floor. But then and there, suddenly, and seemingly miraculously, there was a ship's hull directly before them.

The Parks Canada personnel intently searched to ensure it was indeed a Royal Navy ship. The ship's hold is thought to be intact with supplies of all kinds that the cold Arctic water has faithfully preserved. Archaelogists are prepared to find bodies of crew members below deck, as well.

Though many of the men had died earlier of scurvy, cold, starvation or other disease before the ships were lost, some must have endured, to die with the sinking of the ship. It is also well enough known that the desperate, starving sailors had succumbed to the practicality of prolonging life through cannibalism.

And some had set off across the sea ice, in a state of mental disequilibrium caused by advanced scurvy, hauling provisions laboriously in small heavy, cumbersome sledges pulled by hand despite their weakened condition.


The last people who were known to have witnessed the final hours and days of the remaining crew members were Inuit who had come across the ragtag remnants. An Inuit whose name was Iggiararjuk told his story in 1923, 77 years after the sinking of the ships:

"My father Mangaq was with Tetqatsaq and Qablut on a seal hunt on the west side of King William's Land when they heard shouts, and discovered three white men who stood on shore waving to them. This was in spring, there was already open water, and it was not possible to get in to them before low tide. The white men were very thin, hollow-cheeked, and looked ill. They were dressed in white man's clothes, had no dogs, and were travelling with sledges which they drew themselves.
"Father and his people would willingly have helped the white men, but could not understand them; they tried to explain themselves by signs. They had once been many; now they were only few."

Arctic Defence and Sovereignty

"[The Arctic is] a sphere of special interest [and Russia's goal is not only to restore its influence there] but to make it even stronger."
"We need to take additional measures so as not to fall behind our partners, to maintain Russian influence in the region and, maybe in some areas, to be ahead of our partners."
Russian President Vladimir Putin - Russian security council

"Unless we, the Arctic countries outside Russia, are there in equal strength, we realistically hand much of the Arctic to him."
"Aircraft, a training site and ships that can move in heavy ice ... You keep building on all of that, operate from positions of strength and keep making the investments necessary to do it."
General Rick Hillier, former Canadian chief of defence staff

Russia has been busy in the Arctic and it is serious about its influence and presence in the Arctic Circle. It has several million people living north of the Arctic Circle, and it has a history of Arctic exploration to match that of Great Britain's and Norway's. In the process of building up its military infrastructure including the refurbishing of two bases 50 km from the Finnish border, it is busy creating a new Northern Fleet intelligence unit.

To be staffed by 3,000 electronic warfare specialists, and involvement in developing unmanned surveillance airships and building a 3,000-strong naval aviation unit, Russia's determination to stand tall and unopposed in the Arctic is compelling. Enough so to make its neighbours very nervous indeed, given its propensity for aggressive, threatening action in pursuit of dominance of an area in which it has disputes ongoing for sovereignty rights.

The purpose of all that enhanced security is to ensure the protection of oil and gas production facilities from the potential attacks coming from "terrorists and other potential threats". Potential threats can be assumed to be competition from Arctic neighbours clamouring that they have rights, too, and "terrorists" can be seen to be any who dispute Moscow's right to claim rights they insist are incontrovertibly theirs.

Canada has more of a low-tech approach to the situation, with sovereignty patrols from the air and sea, and the first line of defence represented by the Canadian Rangers, some five thousand mostly Inuit residents armed with Second World War-vintage Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifles. They form part of Canada's armed forces reserves, proudly doing their job to keep an eye on any unusual activities or sightings, which they then convey to the Canadian military.

Canada is constrained by economic considerations from its more ambitiously-stated intentions to defend the Arctic. The question is how Russia can manage to pay for all the advanced scientific and military equipment and installations it intends to place in the Arctic to defend and prosecute its claims. Russia's financial situation despite its vast energy reserves has been faltering lately. And there is the matter of its huge expenditure in Sochi to proudly show the world its prestige quotient.

Maintaining a build-up of military reserves on the border of Ukraine will cost it greatly, not only in sanctions values, but in maintenance costs, that will now extend to investment in Crimea. But that of course, is Moscow's problem. Canada's problem is contending with pressure from NATO to sign on to a co-ordinated response to Russia's aggressive militarization in the Far North. And its resistance to doing just that, by failing to agree on the inclusion of Arctic issues within NATO's purview.

The events in Ukraine have not covered Russia in glory, but they have diminished NATO's reputation simply because the situation, untenable as it is, is one where NATO will not physically intrude. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but its neighbours, fearful of Moscow's further designs, are. Norway wants to see NATO concern itself with Arctic issues as a counterweight to Russia's indomitable threats of dominance.

Why Prime Minister Stephen Harper continues to be resistant to the inclusion of Arctic issues within NATO's agenda is not quite clear. A September summit to take place in Cardiff, Wales will certainly put the issue on the agenda. "The question is, can you trust Russia? Can any country say this shouldn't be on NATO's agenda?", asked one involved diplomat.

"No western or NATO country is going to risk a confrontation that could turn violent, and then escalate frighteningly over Ukraine -- viewed by most as 'far away and corrupt as hell'", stated Mr. Hillier of Russia's strategic priorities in enlarging its hegemonic comfort zone. Vladimir Putin accurately judged the constraints placed upon NATO with respect to confronting him on the Ukraine file.

But NATO members involved in the Arctic would prefer a more proactive role for NATO in the Arctic to deter Mr. Putin from attempting to pull off anything similar to what he has managed to do in Ukraine, utterly destabilizing the country, and threatening to incur even greater damage should it move from caution to full-throttle defence against the insurgency that the Kremlin has engineered to its advantage.

Canada, according to General Hillier, has focused well on the Arctic with a combination of fighter jets, satellite coverage, drones and underwater sensors for advanced warning of any possible intrusion. But three recommendations were advanced through the recently released Strategic Outlook, by the CDA Institute: Canadian participation in a ballistic missile system; creation of a maritime NORAD, and an adequate number of ships to patrol, to enhance Arctic sovereignty.

Placing the Arctic issue on the NATO agenda might be seen properly as yet another priority.

Sovereign Possession

"It's my strong belief we must keep the pressure on and we must continue to maintain sanctions and maintain putting in place strong steps to dissuade this behaviour. What the Putin regime has done cannot be tolerated and can never be accepted."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada

Russian President Putin defended Russia’s move to annex Crimea, saying that the rights of ethnic Russians have been abused by the Ukrainian government. (AP photo)

- See more at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/defiant-putin-signs-treaty-on-crimea-russia-suspended-from-g8/article1-1196738.aspx#sthash.Pi8Gvi3I.dpuf

President Putin defends his move to annex Crimea / AP Photo

Russian President Putin defended Russia’s move to annex Crimea, saying that the rights of ethnic Russians have been abused by the Ukrainian government. (AP photo)

- See more at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/defiant-putin-signs-treaty-on-crimea-russia-suspended-from-g8/article1-1196738.aspx#sthash.Pi8Gvi3I.dpuf

Russian President Putin defended Russia’s move to annex Crimea, saying that the rights of ethnic Russians have been abused by the Ukrainian government. (AP photo) - See more at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/defiant-putin-signs-treaty-on-crimea-russia-suspended-from-g8/article1-1196738.aspx#sthash.Pi8Gvi3I.dpuf

Both Prime Minister Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama have called the referendum that took place in Crimea on Sunday illegitimate, conducted under illegal Russian military occupation. It remains to be seen how effective those sanctions that resulted from these actions will be, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has sneered at these puny attempts to have him re-examine his and the Kremlin's actions. Consolidated by the consequent signing ceremony absorbing Crimea into the Russian Federation.

The overwhelming "yes" vote to union with Russia has catapulted the Crimean peninsula back into the Russian sphere to the complacent satisfaction of Mr. Putin and the ecstatic joy of Russian Crimeans. Not so the ethnic Tatars representing a mere 12% of the current Crimean population but whose territory it once was, as the indigenous people of Crimea whose presence was cleared through forced migration to South Asia by Josef Stalin. Nor are the 20% ethnic Ukrainians seeing much joy.

The question is whether the acquisition of Crimea will satisfy the ambitions of Vladimir Putin on his way to re-inventing the Soviet Union. Is East Ukraine next? Are there designs over Kyiv? Massing some 60,000 Russian troops along the eastern border with Ukraine sends quite the message. One that, surprisingly tens of thousands of Russians marched in Moscow to protest, aghast at what their country had done to a close neighbour.

Should Mr. Putin have his troops advance further into Ukraine, what then, will be the reaction of the West, of NATO, of the United States? The potential consequences are thought-brutalizing. Who knows how Putin's mind works; the Russian economy is not exactly bursting with excess rubles to be thrown into the air at random; the cost of the Sochi Olympics must be dealt with and their excessive graft, as well as the prospect of financially supporting a new dependency in the Crimea.

Will he simply figure in-for-a-penny-in-for-a-pound and order his troops surrounding Ukrainian military bases to render a final ultimatum of surrender to the Ukrainian military they have placed under siege, or suffer the consequences? One of the bases has already experienced a violently explosive event, where a Ukrainian military officer was killed. Are the others to suffer the same fate? And what then?

Armed Russian forces arrest Ukrainian army officers during an operation in Simferopol, after the crisis moves from from political to military action between the two countries, after one Ukrainian serviceman has been shot dead

Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov's government announced that Russian troops are prepared to halt their siege of Ukrainian military bases to render opportunity to those within to either choose to switch sides or to walk away without their weapons. Kyiv would prefer that provisions such as food and water be permitted to go to the Ukrainian military to enable them to withstand the conditions inside until they receive further orders to either resist the Russian surrender orders, or to submit to them.

The travesty that Sunday's referendum represented was simply compounded with the annexation of Crimea into Russia's borders. The Russian propaganda labelling the Ukrainian government and foreign governments supporting it as fascists was welcomed and embraced by the majority of Crimeans. Those who chose to honour their allegiance to Ukraine were wary of the Crimean 'civil defence units' -- brutish men with Russian accents and rubles to spend, menacing the dissenters.

Canada, throughout all of this, has an intimation perhaps of what may lie ahead in the disputes for territory in the Canadian far North. The Arctic territories in which Norway, the United States, Canada, Russia and Denmark all have a stake, and where the natural resources lying deep under the ocean floor have such compelling attraction for future mining opportunities led Russia to challenge Canada's claims of sovereignty.