A Research on the Historical Perspectives of Russia's Arctic Policy

Abstract

Russia, the country with the largest territories in the Arctic among Arctic countries, has laid the foundation for its Arctic policy by starting its advance into Siberia from the feudal era before the imperial Russia. From then on, during the Imperial Russia era, the era of the Soviet regime (the former Soviet Union), and the current Russian federal government that became independent after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, policy views on Siberia were very different. In other words, after step by step colonization, territorialization, and industrialization, the current federal government defined its own Arctic region and promoted a systematic and comprehensive Arctic policy. Moreover, Russia is carrying out the various programmes to fortify its leadership in the Arctic, becoming the chair of the Arctic Council this year (2021-2023).In this paper, from the perspective of strengthening cooperation with Russia, the history of Russia’s Arctic policy is divided by period and important policy areas are reviewed. In particular, Russia’s national interest in the Arctic presented in the ‘2020 Basic Principle for Arctic Policy’ in 2008, and ‘2035 Basic Principles for the Russian Arctic Policy’ in 2020 which is the current federal government’s representative Arctic policy was analyzed.So, from the historical point of view, the top priority and the latest themes that Russia presents as national interests in the Arctic were identified, and based on this, a plan to strengthen cooperation in the Arctic between Korea and Russia was sought.