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Russia building world's most powerful icebreaker fleet, says Putin

The President added that the vessel traffic along the Northern Sea Route can become year-round in coming years

© Alexei Druzhinin/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. Russia is building the most powerful icebreaker fleet in the world, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society.

"Russia is building the world's most powerful icebreaker fleet, including such giants as Leader, which no one has ever built before," he said.

Putin added that the vessel traffic along the Northern Sea Route can become year-round in coming years. "Navigation over the Northern Sea Route can become the year-round one in years to come," he said.

"Despite all the difficulties we face now at the international stage, the research in the Arctic and the attention to the Arctic remain unchanged," the Russian leader said.

At the same time, climate changes occurring worldwide are currently the most visible in the Arctic Region and this fact increases the importance of such studies, Putin noted. It is impossible to forecast the consequences of climatic changes with full accuracy, Putin said, adding that the economic development of the Arctic is another important factor.

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