Kovalchuk stated the need for integrated development of the Arctic
The development of the Arctic should be comprehensive, as this region is of strategic importance to Russia, Mikhail Kovalchuk, President of the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center, said on March 24.
"We must remember and understand that we are the largest Arctic power. If we talk about the territory in the Arctic sector, then today it is the largest. The Americans only have Alaska, let's see what happens to Canada and Greenland, but nevertheless we are the largest [sector]. And, what is very important, the most populated region of the Arctic — we have more than 2 million people living in this zone," he said.
Kovalchuk noted that it should be remembered that the region has huge reserves of a wide variety of resources, ranging from bioresources to biofuels. In addition, it has a very fragile ecology, so space exploration should be carried out "extremely delicately and correctly."
"What [the chairman of the Maritime Board] said Nikolai Platonovich [Patrushev], — on a deep scientific basis, nature-like technologies, strategies that were approved by the President [of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin]. That is, a special approach is scientifically controlled. Hence, it is quite obvious that the development of the Arctic must be comprehensive. We cannot solve the energy sector separately, deal with ecology or resources separately," the President of the National Research Center emphasized.
Thus, it will help to ensure the simultaneous movement of the development of the Arctic in all directions, Kovalchuk added.
In January, Kovalchuk stated that the Arctic is the testing ground of the future, where Russia has a global advantage. He noted that the country must be super-strong in the region to protect its national interests. For Russia, the Arctic is a global advantage, for which Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken a lot of steps, the expert pointed out.
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