Russia is pouring money and missiles into the Arctic in the biggest military push since the fall of the Soviet Union.

It is building a new generation of nuclear icebreakers and opening new bases with long-range bombers and radar stations across the region, according to experts.

Viktor Murahkovskiy, a military expert and editor-in-chief of Homeland Arsenal Magazine, said: "If you compare to the Soviet period, we haven't reached that level of presence in the Arctic yet.

"If you compare to what was absent just 10-15 years ago, the growth is very fast, unprecedented as some media call it.

Image: Atomic icebreakers Russia and Yamal are seen moored at Atomflot base in Murmansk

"But in my opinion the reason for it is Russia's strategic goal which is determined not by military tasks, but by securing maritime traffic along the northern route."


Moscow is rushing to re-open a chain of abandoned Soviet military, air and radar bases on remote Arctic islands and to build new ones, as it pushes ahead with a long-standing territorial claim to almost half a million square miles of the Arctic thought to contain extensive oil and gas reserves.

Low oil prices and Western sanctions imposed as a result of Moscow's actions in Ukraine mean ambitious new offshore Arctic oil and gas projects have been mothballed for now, but the Kremlin is playing a longer game.

It is building three new nuclear icebreakers, including the world's largest, which will bolster Russia's existing fleet of around 40 breakers, of which six are nuclear.

With memories of Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea still fresh and strains over Moscow's Syria campaign, NATO is keeping a close eye.

Image: A Russian submarine patrols near Murmansk

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu is presiding over the re-opening or creation of six military facilities.

These include an island base on Alexandra Land, which will house 150 troops able to survive autonomously for 18 months.

Moscow's biggest Arctic base, dubbed "Northern Shamrock", is meanwhile taking shape on the remote Kotelny Island. It will be manned by 250 personnel and equipped with air defence missiles.

Despite the growing number of Russia's military personnel in the Arctic, the overall military presence in the region remains low, Mr Murakhovsky said.

He added: "If we start counting troops, divisions, airfields, jets, radars, etc., deployed in this vast territory we would see that the amount is very insignificant."

Russia wants other Arctic nations, especially the United States, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland, to pay attention.

The ministry has boasted that the scale of construction in the Arctic and across Russia is comparable only to the post-war period when Josef Stalin was in charge.

Russia hopes that eventually, aided by climate change and a new generation of icebreakers, the Northern Sea Route - running from Murmansk to the Bering Strait near Alaska - could become a mini Suez Canal, cutting sea transport times from Asia to Europe and netting lucrative transit fees.