WASHINGTON, April 21. /TASS/. Responsibility for a possible deterioration of the situation in the Arctic would lie with those who refuse dialogue and deliberately choose confrontation, Russian Ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov said on Monday, commenting on a recent interview by Finnish President Alexander Stubb with The Globe and Mail.
"Russia views the Arctic as a region of peace, stability, and sustainable development," the diplomat noted. "We remain ready to engage with our neighbors and to work for the common good - provided that such willingness is mutual. Ultimately, responsibility for any deterioration of the Arctic environment will lie with those who intentionally choose confrontation over dialogue," Stepanov stressed in a letter sent to the editorial office of The Globe and Mail regarding Stubb’s interview. "I believe this message from the Russian side distinguished Canadian readers of ‘The Globe and Mail’ deserve to hear," the ambassador wrote.
Zone of low conflict
Stubb’s comments "on Arctic affairs <…> risk giving readers a picture that is at best incomplete and at worst misleading," the ambassador noted. "And here is why. For decades, the Arctic stood out as a rare zone of low tension. Even at the height of the Cold War, Arctic nations managed to separate military rivalry from practical cooperation in areas such as environmental protection, science, navigation, and maritime safety," Stepanov recalled. "The clearest expression of this approach became the Arctic Council, where the eight polar States - Russia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the United States - worked side by side on shared priorities: ecology, climate monitoring, search and rescue, the protection of Indigenous communities, and scientific research. Neighboring countries felt at ease in an atmosphere defined by predictability and good-neighborliness," the diplomat said.
"That institutional memory has not vanished. For Russia, nothing fundamental has changed in its Arctic approach," the ambassador assured.
"Russia’s military presence in the polar latitudes has always been proportionate to the tasks of safeguarding national security, protecting borders, and ensuring freedom of navigation in northern waters," he clarified. "It is a defensive posture and has undergone no conceptual shift. On nuclear weapons, Mr. Stubb appears to undercut his own argument. While raising the issue of Russia’s arsenal as a source of concern for northern countries, he also acknowledges that Russian warheads are not aimed at Helsinki, Stockholm, or Oslo. In other words, he recognizes Finland itself facing no such threat in this context," the ambassador said.
"As for the United States, it is worth recalling the Moscow Declaration of January 14, 1994, under which Russia and the United States agreed to cease targeting their strategic nuclear missiles at one another. A similar joint statement was adopted by Moscow and London on February 15, 1994," the diplomat went on to say. "Russia’s leadership remains firmly committed to the principle that nuclear war must never be fought: there can be no winners, and it must never be unleashed," Stepanov confirmed.
Threat lies in short-sighted politicians
"Today, the only genuine risk to the Arctic seems to come from short-sighted political calls to militarize national economies in general, and the Arctic dimension of international politics in particular," the diplomat said.
"Exploiting personal phobias and constructing images of Russia - or any other country - as an enemy will not help such political figures strengthen the security of their states. Politicking risks creating a new arc of tension where none previously existed. Moreover, portraying the ‘Russian threat’ as acute enough to justify ever-increasing defense budgets has already begun to place a growing burden on taxpayers in the Arctic nations of the West, whose quality of life has not been improving in recent years even without this added strain," the ambassador added.
In his interview with The Globe and Mail, Stubb said that the countries should "really focus on Arctic security," especially in light of cooperation between Russia and China in the region. At the same time, he noted that such potential joint activity by Canada, Finland and Nordic countries "will cost a lot of money.".