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On January 30, a round table "Northern supply and economic security issues" was held in Arkhangelsk within the framework of the Safe Arctic 2025 business program.

 

During the round table the participants discussed issues of legislative support for the northern supply, analyzed new approaches to provide supplying the remote areas, the specifics of organizing northern delivery in certain regions, and the experience of interregional cooperation in organizing northern delivery.

 

According to Victoria Pestova, Deputy Minister and Head of the Department for the Implementation of Arctic Projects of the Ministry of Economic Development and Industry of the Arkhangelsk Region, efficient delivery of goods is a priority component in the development of the Arctic zone of Russia. The adoption of the federal law on northern delivery is an important step in establishing an orderly scheme for supplying the remote areas. “This measure made it possible to form a single, comprehensive, nationwide approach to organizing northern deliveries,” noted Victoria Pestova.

 

The experts discussed the issue of the specifics of energy supply to the Arctic regions. Thus, Olga Epifanova, Member of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management, noted that the dependence on fuel deliveries remains enormous: annual deliveries within the framework of the northern supply make up about 70% of the total amount of cargo. "Ensuring energy supply to the remote regions is one of the strategic tasks in Russia. We need local energy projects," she emphasized.

 

The idea of the local energetics was also supported by Oleg Muratov, Member of the Public Council of the Rosatom State Corpration, Member of the Central Board of the Nuclear Society of Russia, Head of the Radiation Technology Department of TVELL LLC, academician of MANEB. According to the expert to provide energy and heat to the remote arctic regions it is necessary to use small nuclear power plants, which can also be built on island territories, such as the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, as they do not require constant fuel deliveries. Oleg Muratov demonstrated existing Russian developments and prospective projects in the field of low-power nuclear power plants, both land-based and floating.

 

Yulia Zvorykina, the moderator of the round table, Member of the Public Council of the Arctic Zone of the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, Member of the Public Council of the Rosatom State Corporation, noted the competitiveness of the nuclear solutions in the global market and drew attention to the fact that the Russia’s Arctic can become a territory for pilot projects in this area.

 

In addition, special attention was paid to the transport and technological aspects of ensuring national security in the Arctic, in particular the development of emergency rescue infrastructure on cargo delivery buses, the development and implementation of automated systems for monitoring transportation and cargo safety, the use of modern modes of transport, means of forecasting and analyzing natural and climatic conditions.

 

Olga Epifanova took note to the prospects of unmanned aerial vehicles. "Cargo deliveries using UAVs are already being tested in the northern regions. So far, the carrying capacity is not large: for example, post, medicine. But the fact itself is important - the northern territories of Russia fit perfectly into projects for testing unmanned equipment," concluded Olga Epifanova.

 

Oleg Solyakov, Associate professor of the Department of Water Transport Operation of the Russian University of Transport (MIIT), shared his vision of the prospects for using of the flying wings in the regions of the Arctic zone of Russia. Oleg Solyakov emphasized that such an amphibious type of transport will significantly increase the speed of delivery of passengers and cargo, expand the scope of interregional, intraregional and intra-district communication of settlements, which will make it possible to reduce the severity of the problem of northern delivery.

 

Vladimir Sychev, General Director of KAMA LLC, spoke about the development of the project of the world's first vertical takeoff and landing UAV with a gas-dynamic control system. According to him, such UAVs will be distinguished by all-weather use, high maneuverability and stability, which will allow them to be used in the northern supply.

 

Elena Kutukova, Director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "National Park "Ladoga Skerries", announced plans to implement a pilot project of a digital management system for a specially protected natural area using unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in the National Park in 2025. This project will solve the problems of searching and rescuing people, monitoring fires, identifying illegal construction, etc. It is planned to equip the pilot area with UAS in order to fully cover the National Park in 2026.

 

Vladimir Vasilev, Executive Director of the Northern Forum, outlined new approaches to supporting northern deliveries and providing the remote areas, including sharing his expectations from the digital atlas of winter roads in Yakutia, which is being developed. In September 2024, a Northern Forum working group on transport and logistics was established under the leadership of Nadezhda Filippova, Professor at the Moscow Automobile and Road State Technical University. The working group has actively started its work: digital atlas of winter roads in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is under development, a modular building on a winter road is under testing, which will lead to the development of recommendations on the organisation of roadside services that will serve many purposes - both road safety and tourism development. The Northern Forum creates international platforms of various levels, including global ones, for sharing experience and expanding partnerships, which can be useful for improving the network of suppliers and logistics of northern supply.

 

Mikhail Golosov, Founder of HARDFOR LLC, presented the innovative solutions for monitoring cargo transportation in the Arctic regions. The speaker noted the advantages of implementing the GORADAR monitoring system, which will help to solve shipping problems in the far north.

 

Boris Kravtsov, Deputy Head of the Department for Research of Impact of Natural Factors on Infrastructure of the Scientific Center "CMPE" of the VNIIZHT JSC (Railway Research Institute), spoke about the automated system for monitoring and analyzing the impact of external factors on railway infrastructure (AS MAVFI). According to the speaker, AS MAVFI will help identify risks of man-made incidents and prevent their impact.

 

The experts of the round table recalled the historical and global experience of delivering vital goods and resources to the remote areas, and also touched upon such areas of the Arctic agenda as the role of indigenous peoples in ensuring food security in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, the need to build up professional competencies, discussed man-made and anthropogenic hazards, and climate change.

 

Thus, Dmitry Lepchikov, Minister for Civil Defense and Life Safety of the Population of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutiya), emphasized that global climate change in the Arctic has a significant impact on the process of organizing the northern delivery.

 

Nadezhda Kuchumova, Deputy Director for Marketing of the OCEANOS JSC highlighted the risk factors of man-made disasters for functional areas of marine activity in the Arctic zone and presented developments of gliders designed for year-round monitoring of the underwater environment, developed with the St. Petersburg State Marine Technical University

 

At the end of the round table, the moderator Yulia Zvorykina emphasized the paramount importance of ensuring comprehensive safety during the implementation of the northern delivery to prevent the risk of disruption of the delivery of vital resources and, as a result, guarantee the economic well-being of the Russian Federation in the Arctic.

 

The organizers of the round table were the Public Council of the Arctic Zone of the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, the Public Council of the Rosatom State Corporation, and the St. Petersburg University of the State Fire Service of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters.

 

The event was held with the organizational support of the Events & Partners LLC.