MURMANSK, August 28. /TASS/. The fact that the United Russian Party's public program now contains a special Arctic section demonstrates the parliamentary support for projects related to development of the northern territories and a change in the state approach: from initiatives to arrangement of processes at the legislative level, Doctor of Economics, leading the Expert Council on Arctic Development at the St. Petersburg Committee on Foreign Relations Alexey Fadeev told TASS.

"The fact that there is now an Arctic section demonstrates that the state policy related to development of the northern territories and the Arctic is approaching a fundamentally new level," he said. "We have used to live having, so to say, some initiatives and proposals. Some things, of course, have been implemented at a certain level, and legally fixed, but the fact that such a section now is part of the United Russia Party's program guarantees a systematic approach to legislative support for projects aimed at the Arctic's development."

The Arctic is an indisputable way of developing the Russian economy, he stressed. Right now, there are more than 1,000 Arctic projects with a total investment of more than 35 trillion rubles ($407 billion). One in six rubles in the Russian economy is formed in the Russian Federation's Arctic Zone, which is about 15% of GDP and 25% of exports. Moreover, the expert continued, with the developing logistics projects, the Arctic's growth potential is huge.

"The Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor, the Northern Sea Route, the building of new icebreakers, the construction of infrastructures, the upgrade of ports and railways," the expert said. "However, we must remember that the Arctic is not just tons of oil, cubic meters of LNG or certain amounts of extracted ore, since, above all, it is about people, and therefore a significant emphasis in the section is placed on the social aspect. Those are aspects of retaining people in the northern territories as well as of attracting new, highly qualified personnel: engineers, doctors, and teachers. The Arctic Mortgage [Program] with its record-low rate of 2%, the Arctic Hectare, and other projects. That is, nowadays, many factors are being consolidated at the legislative level, and those are the factors that favor people living and feeling comfortable in the northern territories."

A separate item in the Arctic section focuses on the environmental agenda, on support for the North's low-numbered indigenous peoples. Generally speaking, the program demonstrates a balance between the industrial, social and environmental development of the Arctic territories.

The United Russia Party has a majority in the State Duma, thus it is possible to speak about parliamentary support for Arctic development projects, despite macroeconomic changes in the country's policy in the medium and long term. "The fact there is a special Arctic section may indeed indicate a transition to a fundamentally new qualitative level of the state's attitude to development of the northern territories. We may say with confidence that this will ensure the state's systematic work, and those would be not just some initiatives, but rather legally-fixed initiatives that will generate a major milestone of high-quality life in the Arctic and of the northern territories' development," the expert said in conclusion.