Rethinking Russia’s Energy Policy in the Arctic

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to an analysis of the key factors of changing priorities in Russia’s energy policy in the Arctic in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Currently, the development of hydrocarbons on land and on the shelf forms the basis of the strategy of the socioeconomic development of the Russian Arctic. At the same time, it is obvious that the definition of the Arctic exclusively as a ‘resource base’, as dominated in Russia’s politics in the early 2000s, leads to an underestimation of its complex importance and creates the preconditions for the development of an exclusively energy sector of the Arctic economy. In recent years, a narrow raw material approach to the Arctic has been changed, whereby the experts have started to talk about the need for sustainable development in the region. The authors highlight internal (special climatic conditions of the region, lack of Russian technologies for hydrocarbon production in Arctic conditions, insufficient level of infrastructure development, etc.) and external factors (falling oil prices, US sanctions and EU restrictive measures, ‘energy transition’, etc.), influencing the change in the priorities of Russia’s energy policy in the Arctic. The authors come to the conclusion that, under the influence of these factors, the AZRF needs to change the development model of the energy complex from an extensive-operational model to an innovative one, built on the principles of sustainable development.