Natural resources in the Arctic

The myth about the Arctic as the ultimate “treasure chest” of natural resources still has plenty of spin in the Russian political discourse, but reasonable assessments, like this article in Nezavisimaya gazeta, do appear. They are confirmed by the fact that Gazprom has in fact cut down the production on its newly-opened Bovanenkovskoe fields on the Yamal. On this background, the news about erecting a double barbed wire fence on the border with Norway – presumably to keep Green-peaceniks away – reads really odd.