On April 14, 2022, the conference of the Association of the Northern sea route  (NSRA) was held.  The conference took place in  online regime. Our partners and observers from St. Petersburg to the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia participated.

NSRA  held a conference the day after the Arctic meeting with the participation of the President of Russia, where important statements were made. So there was a lot to discuss. Arthur Chilingarov's welcome address was short and concrete. Despite the difficult geopolitical situation, work on the development of the Northern sea route and  the Arctic will continue actively.

Vladimir Kharlov, NSRA vice- president , spoke about the program for 2022 and briefly introduced the new members of the аssociation Council. This year is the year of the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the icebreaking development of the NSR, and NSRA  plans to hold a joint event with our partners in Arkhangelsk, from where, for the first time in history, the icebreaker "Alexander Sibiryakov" successfully crossed the Northern sea route in one navigation.

“Over the past few years, the intensity of cargo turnover along the Northern sea route has been growing rapidly, and the main risks for navigation are associated with the ice cover,” Sergey Brestkin, head of the Center for Ice Hydrometeorological Information of the Institute of the Arctic and Antarctic, said in his speech. Just remind you  that this main Russian Arctic Institute has been a partner of NSRA   from the very beginning of its creation.

One of the leading scientists of the AARI presented in his report the main directions of the application of the practice of "selective ice law", when, based on the results of ice monitoring, the easiest option for conducting a marine operation is selected. All the possibilities  were presented to minimize the cost of icebreakers or ships of an increased ice class. It is thanks to the information meteorological service of AARI that our partners Atomflot, the Lena United River Shipping Company, Sovfrakht, GMK Norilskiy Nickel successfully navigated their vessels along  the NSR, despite the unusually difficult ice conditions last year.

Another NSRA  partner, Mikhail Grigoriev, the head of Gekon consulting company , a member of the scientific council of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, spoke on a very important and interesting topic about the prospects for the development of ports and the cargo base of the Northern sea route.

“Transportation in any region, including the Arctic, is primarily aimed at the result that we want to get, and the development of terminals and ports is an important component of this process,” Mikhail Nikolayevich noted in his speech.

The cargo traffic of the Northern sea route has been growing rapidly over the past few years and should increase to 80 million tons by 2024. And although the sanctions also affected the Arctic oil and gas projects, this should not have a strong impact on the volume of traffic along the NSR. We still have to fully understand the new financial, trade, transport and humanitarian situation in the new geopolitical conditions. “It takes time - 3-4 months to understand how the situation will develop. There should be business decisions to develop the situation in the Arctic, and not politically motivated decisions,” the speaker summed up.

“Under the new conditions, the rethinking of the logistics of Russia's foreign trade becomes quite obvious,” said Yulia Zvorykina, Deputy Director of the ANO Institute VEB, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Arctic Herald magazine, in her report. We remind you that the journal is the information partner of NSRA. We are returning to the idea of Sergey Vitte, when a new transport architecture is being formed and re-oriented from the East-West to the  North-South direction. The North-South direction is half shorter. Under the new conditions, the ministry of transport, the ministry of Foreign Affairs and the regions must convince our partners to take a fresh look at the Northern Sea Route at the upcoming G20 meeting in Indonesia. “The NSR is not understood by our partners completely, since it is not yet all the year-round  to be used and is not  provided with its own fleet,” Julia said.. Although such a task has been set by the government.. Providing opportunities for   the fleet  bunkering,  reliable communications, solving insurance issues,  transition to a new payment format- all these tasks should be resolved if the NSR claims to be an international transport artery.

“Without the training of high skilled  personnel, the successful operation of the Russian fleet in the Arctic and along the Northern sea route is impossible”,-. .Elena Smyaglikova said as vice-rector of the admiral Makarov High Marine school   about the work of the only educational Institution in the world that arrange  personnel studying for work at the nuclear icebreakers . The questions on the ice-class training vessel and the issues of passing the practice class by the cadets of “Makarovka” is included in the final document in order to assist NSRA  partner . At the invitation of the oldest  High Marine school  one of updated NSRA workshop may take place in the new Okhta training center  to visit Okhta (Saint-Petersburg) new training center..

It is impossible to develop the Arctic territories  without providing a reliable energy supply.

This was the speech of Denis Sukhov, general director of Artea company ,  NSRA observer.

The issues of Northern delivery,  increasing cargo traffic along the NSR remain the priority of Sakha -Jakutia, huge Arctic territory,   NSRA partner. “River and sea transport quite often remains the only logistic  solution within short summer navigation”,-  Semyon Korkin,said  the  head of the department of  river and sea and railway transportation . The key issues here are well  known: the renewal of river fleet and  dredging work increasing.. They will significantly improve the economy of transport and reduce  the local budget cost. The Zhatai shipyard supposed to be  opened next year and would help a lot  to renovate Russia's aging river fleet.

“Only with an integrated approach to all issues, it is possible to resolve the issues of the development of polar aviation,” said Valery Ostapchuk, partner of the NSRA and general director of the Naryan- Mar United Aviation Squadron, in his speech. It takes at least 10-15 years to train a helicopter commander to perform rescue operations on the NSR. The issues of flight personnel and import substitution remain the most important. In the current situation, it is necessary to  engage in the production of our own high-quality life jackets, wetsuits, rescue winches, the quality of which lags behind. Small  businesses could  be actively involved in .

Mikhail Dovgiy, , the head of Arkt-web company, is sure that the business is sensitive the changes happening to day . Russian business can actively engage in import substitution issues with a significant reduction in interest rates on loans, taxes and the rejection of excessive administration and inspections. In the Arctic, business monopolization is strong and high-tech production is difficult. This requires a special tax regime. It is necessary to return to business the confidence that the state will provide clear rules of the game based on a long-term basis. And then business, in the opinion of the speaker, will see the prospect of development, but not thinking only   how to make money quickly and leave.

As a result of the conference, it was decided to send proposals to the r group “The North”, headed by Sergey Frank,  Sovcomflot company CEO, as  reliable long-term partner of NSRA.

One of the proposals based on the results of the conference will be an appeal by NSRA the President  Arthur Chilingarov, to assist in the allocation of an ice-class vessel for the practice class of cadets of the  High Marine school after admiral Makarov.