SAINT PETERSBURG — At Saint Petersburg’s historic Baltic Shipyard, cranes hover over the shining Neva River as hundreds of workers build four nuclear-powered ice-breakers.
Fronted by a Russian flag and named after the country’s northern regions, the giant vessels are meant to ensure Moscow’s dominance over the melting Arctic.
Russia has scrambled to become a leading power in the region, where receding ice cover has allowed Moscow to develop a new shipping route.
President Vladimir Putin has made the warming region a priority, heavily investing in the so-called Northern Sea Route that allows ships to reach Asian ports up to 15 days faster than via the traditional S…
Keep on reading: Russia races to build giant ice-breakers for Arctic dominance