Moscow plans to boost its Arctic fleet by building 153 new ships, including 12 icebreakers, according to the journal of the Eastern Economic Forum, published by the Roscongress foundation.
At the same time, the publication suggests that Russia aims to up transarctic transportation by creating a new class of cargo vessels for the Northern Sea Route (NSR) by 2035.
According to the new naval doctrine, announced in August, Russia intends to utilize the NSR as its internal waters, using it as a “safe, competitive, year-round national transport route". The nation also plans to continue leading in icebreaker construction and investing in the infrastructure of the nuclear fleet.
The NSR is a shipping route which lies within Russia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), analogous to the Northwest Passage on the Canadian side. It is shorter than the same trip via the Suez Canal Route, but allows traffic only several months per year due to weather conditions.