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Kremlin comments on postponement of Arktika icebreaker commissioning

Russia’s civil nuclear power corporation Rosatom believes that the delay won’t generate problems with the delivery of cargoes via the Northern Sea Route

MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. The Kremlin does not consider as critical the postponement of the deadline for commissioning the Arktika icebreaker from 2017 to a later term, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on We4dnesday.

In a talk with journalists, the Kremlin spokesman recalled that the issue of delaying the Arktika icebreaker’s commissioning had also been raised before, including by the Russian president.

"This is quite normal for projects of such a scale and such shifts are used and this is a very large project," Peskov said.

"It’s another thing when this delay goes beyond the reasonable boundary and then a danger really emerges while such a certain flexibility in the deadlines for implementing such projects is allowed," the presidential spokesman said.

Peskov added that "controlling bodies are working and doing their job."

Russia’s civil nuclear power corporation Rosatom said earlier that the United Shipbuilding Corporation had requested to reschedule the deadlines for making operational the new icebreaker Arktika designed to lead cargoes along the Northern Sea Route.

Rosatom believes that the delay with the commissioning of the Arktika icebreaker won’t generate problems with the delivery of cargoes via the Northern Sea Route.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said earlier that the Arktika icebreaker would be commissioned in June 2019. The icebreaker was laid down at the Baltic shipyard in November 2013.