Arctic Scramble, Russian Compromise

Abstract

Russia’s flag planting at the North Pole in 2007 unleashed a surge of media attention and political interest in the Arctic. A scramble for the Arctic was underway, with Russia as the wild card. This chapter draws attention to the internal Russian criticism of the delimitation agreement that Russia entered into with Norway in the Barents Sea in 2010. The agreement was a compromise which split the formerly disputed area into two equal parts. Critics call for President Putin to establish an international expert commission to assess the validity of the agreement. The author argues that international agreements cannot be annulled by commissions or experts, so the question is not so much how, but why Putin should claim the Barents Sea back.