ST. PETERSBURG, December 13. /TASS/. The Clean Arctic federal project plans to begin a cleanup mission on Spitsbergen in spring, 2023, the project's COB Ruslan Gubaidullin told TASS.
"From May, we will be able to begin working there (on Spitsbergen - TASS)," he said on sidelines of the 12th international forum Arctic: Present and Future.
Foreign volunteers will be able to participate in the mission on Spitsbergen, he added.
Earlier, Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Alexey Chekunov said Spitsbergen's future is not in coal. The archipelago attracts tourists and this direction requires investments. Russia has been working on Spitsbergen for more than 90 years. The ArcticUgol Company, organized in 1931, produces 120,000 tons of coal a year.
Clean Arctic is a large-scale project to clean the Arctic territory from the waste, accumulated since the Soviet times. Captain of the 50 Let Pobedy nuclear-powered Arctic class icebreaker Dmitry Lobusov and Gennady Antokhin, Captain on FESCO’s ships from 1982 to 2012, are the project’s authors. Clean Arctic has developed into a platform, which unites public and volunteer organizations, scientists, officials and businesses. The project’s partners are Norilsk Nickel, Rosatom, PhosAgro, and RZD.
The 12th international forum Arctic: Present and Future took place in St. Petersburg on December 8 and 9. In 2022, Russia marks the 90th anniversary of the Northern Sea Route, the 85th anniversary of the world's first drifting scientific station, North Pole-1, and the 15th anniversary of the high-latitude Arctic deep-water expedition (2007). Special activities on the forum's agenda were devoted to these events. The forum's organizer was the Association of Polar Explorers, supported by the Federation Council, the State Duma, the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic, the Foreign Ministry and other authorities. Nornickel was the event's general partner. TASS was the general information partner.