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Navy chief: Russia resumes Arctic research after 30-year break

“Today, after a long break, Russia is resuming Arctic research and a research vessel will for the first time sail along the Northern Sea Route without an icebreaker,” Viktor Chirkov said

ST. PETERSBURG, August 19, 0:40 /ITAR-TASS/. Nine cadets of the Naval Institute set off on a round-the-world trip on Monday as members of a Baltic Fleet research vessel.

The ship, Admiral Vladimirsky, with a crew of 131, including nine women, sailed off from Kronshtadt, heading to the Arctic. “Today, after a long break, Russia is resuming Arctic research and a research vessel will for the first time sail along the Northern Sea Route without an icebreaker,” Navy Commander-in-Chief Viktor Chirkov said.

The last such expedition took place in 1983. Now the ship will voyage across the Baltic, Northern and Barents Seas, and the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, go through the Panama Canal to the Atlantic, cross it and then travel on to the British Channel, the southern part of the Northern Sea, Danish straits and return to the Baltic Sea.

The ship will travel 24,670 nautical miles and call at five Russian ports Murmansk, Dixon, Tiksi, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and four foreign ones - Vancouver (Canada), Corinto (Nicaragua), Havana (Cuba), and Brest (France).

During the voyage, the crew will do research, gather data for nautical charts and navigation manuals, and check radio navigation systems. “The main tasks of the expedition also include specifying borders, exploring possibilities for establishing naval bases, and conducting depth surveying along the Northern Sea Route,” Chirkov said.

The ship, which is expected to return to its home port of Kronshtadt in 125 days, was built in 1975 and named after Black Sea Fleet Commander Lev Vladimirsky.

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