Shrewd Move By Putin?

source Every year roughly 20% of all Northern Sea Route shipping violates the rules of Navigation. Wrong hull specs for ice or not informing authorities of the intended route or failing to gain permission are common occurrences. Russia needs to tighten up before they have a huge disaster to deal with.

Russia has announced that they are in the process of compiling a new legislation that will ban foreign ships from doing certain duties within the North Sea Route. Russia is terrified that another country ie China will turn up on the scene and take over with their ready made ice fleet.

The restrictions that are expected to be law come March are the following.

1.Only Russian vessels allowed to transport Russian commodities - gas - oil - coal.
2. Ice Breaking duties only done by the Russian Fleet.
3. Underwater engineering and any work along the route has to be Russian backed and approved.

The Chinese have an ice breaking fleet which they have been preparing for a few years which is now according to this will be null and void.

Russia is trying to spark off a whole new boom industry in ship building by supporting their own ship yards. No one can fault them for this and wish more countries would think along similar lines instead of farming everything out. The fear is that the Russian fleet will take years to build has not been lost as this is something that needs being done immediately.

There is definitely money to be made by getting in early on this project and expect the oligarchs to have their hands in on this somewhere. Funds need to be found to make these projects happen and the Government is already over committed on so many things in this region.

By Russia controlling their exports along the NSR they can stipulate the ice grade specs for their vessels as any oil spillage will not be looked on favorably by the West. By having control on not only ship movements across the NSR as ships need to apply for a permit Russia has full control of it's exports and where they go.

This will not be seen as a popular move by countries looking to get involved but what did anyone expect. India has signed a lucrative deal with Russia already to supply their energy needs and have already handed over shipyards to facilitate any building requirements which will speed the process up. China is the one who will feel hard done by as not only have they built a fleet but offered financial loans to try and gain an advantage. Putin has rejected China on numerous occasions and this is just another slap to say they are not wanted.

Will China back off or will they try and force an issue as they see the NSR as part of their shared territory and a right of passage. Why else would they build such a fleet of ice breakers if they thought they were not going to use them.

Over the last week a record number of vessels were trapped in ice and thus The Russian Government have agreed to build another 2 giant ice breakers which will bring their fleet to 7. They say that would be sufficient to service this route 365 days per year and I hope they are right.

This is all still too early to tell how this is all going to pan out but Putin has made no new friends by this announcement. Possibly he is using strong arm tactics to gain the upper hand in any negotiations that follow which is sometimes the case. China is an obvious customer for their natural resources and Russia will want top dollar and not a subsidised delivery because they owe a fortune to China which is how the Chinese operate.

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