[Editor's Note: In late March, the Kremlin released the full text of its September 2008 Arctic strategy, which lays out a dramatic expansion of official Russian sovereign interests in what was previously agreed-upon as part of the so-called "global commons." The full text of the strategy, in Russian, is now available online on the website of the Russian National Security Council . Some of its main points are translated and excerpted below.]
"4. The main national interests of the Russian Federation in the Arctic are:
a) the utilization of the Russian Federation's Arctic zone as a national strategic resource base capable of fulfilling the socio-economic tasks associated with national growth;
b) the preservation of the Arctic as a zone of peace and cooperation;
c) the protection of the Arctic's unique ecological system;
d) the use of the North Sea passage as a unified transportation link connecting Russia to the Arctic..."
"6. The main goals of the Russian Federation's official state policy in the Arctic are:
a) in the sphere of socio-economic development, to expand the resource base of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, which is capable in large part of fulfilling Russia's needs for hydrocarbon resources, aqueous biological resources, and other forms of strategic raw material;
b) in the sphere of national security, the protection and defense of the national boundary of the Russian Federation... and the provision of a favorable operating environment in the Arctic zone for the Russian Federation, including the preservation of a basic fighting capability of general purpose units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as well as other troops and military formations in that region;
c) in the sphere of ecological protection, the preservation and protection of the natural ecosystem of the Arctic, and the mitigation of the ecological consequences... of increasing economic activity and global climate change;
d) in the sphere of information technology and telecommunications, the formation of a unified information space of the Russian Federation in its Arctic zone...
f) in the sphere of international cooperation, guaranteeing mutually beneficial bilateral and multilateral cooperation between the Russian Federation and other Arctic states on the basis of international treaties and agreements to which the Russian Federation is a signatory."
"7. The main strategic priorities of the Russian Federation's official state policy in the Arctic are:
a) the active interaction of the Russian Federation with other Arctic states for the purposes of delineating maritime boundaries on the basis of international legal norms and cooperative agreements, taking into account the national interests of the Russian Federation...
f) the delineation of the maritime territory of the Arctic Ocean and securing a mutually beneficial presence for the Russian Federation on the Spitsbergen peninsula...
h) the development of the resource base of the Russian Federation's Arctic zone via the use of promising technologies;
i) the modernization and development of the transportation infrastructure and fishing industry of the Russian Federation's Arctic zone."
"9. The main objectives of the Russian Federation's official state policy in the Arctic will be achieved by solving the following basic tasks:
b) in the sphere of national security, the protection of the national border of the Russian Federation... it is necessary: to create general purpose military formations drawn from the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, [as well as] other troops and military formations (most importantly, border units) in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, capable of ensuring security under various military and political circumstances;"