On April 13th 2022, just two months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin was far from the front lines. He was convening a high-profile public meeting on Russia’s Arctic policy—even when most other government meetings were cancelled or postponed. Opening the session, Putin rejected any “delays in Arctic projects due to sanctions or external pressure” and called for “maximum acceleration” of Russia’s economic and military activities in the region.

Putin’s rhetoric on the Arctic intensified in months that followed. By September 2022, he declared “the Far East and the Arctic are the regions where Russia’s future lies”. The Kremlin then began using the term “osvoenie”, meaning “development” or “mastery”, to frame its Arctic ambitions, echoing the narratives of imperial and Soviet expansion. By this point, Putin’s obsession with the high north had been brewing for quite some time. According to a source from a Russian state agency involved in Arctic policy, who agreed to speak to us anonymously, the Russian leader “caught the Arctic bug” back in 2020.[1]

Words soon became policy. Russia’s Foreign Policy Concept, renewed in 2023, elevated the Arctic to second place among Moscow’s strategic priorities, outranked only by relations with post-Soviet states (which includes Ukraine). It was a striking pivot. In the 1990s and 2000s, Arctic affairs weren’t even listed as a priority in its foreign policy agenda. Now, even amid economic, military and political pressures brought by the Ukraine war, it is integral to Putin’s strategic vision.

The Kremlin’s Arctic ambitions have grown further this year, partly in response to signals from Washington. US president Donald Trump’s sights on Greenland were interpreted in Moscow as a sign of growing geopolitical competition in the region. America’s position validated the long-held idea that the Arctic is “the next frontier for great power competition”, reinforcing Russia’s self-perception as a key player on the world stage. Russian officials have since reiterated that the Arctic is a “zone of national and strategic interest” for the country.