313 Ángel Gómez de Ágreda Climate Change in the Arctic: Beyond the North Pole Canadian archipelagos lead us to focus on the consequences that the Arctic thaw will have on the Russian Federation26 and their continental neighbours. Thus, in spite of the interest expressed by the then President of the Russian Federation, Dimitri Medvedev, in repopulating the Arctic27, there still remain certain conditioning factors that significantly complicate that desire becoming reality. The reduced –and declining– Russian population is the most important here. Indeed, since the break-up of the former Soviet Union Russia has lost around 10% of its population. In addition to such numerical data, one must mention the existence of a growing proportion of Russians from the ethnic and religious minorities of the south of the country. Quite significant too is the number of Central Asian emigrants that live in Federation territory. Both Medvedev’s speech, and one in similar vein pronounced by Vladimir Putin in the International Forum The Arctic: Territory of Dialoguea clearly display a concern for environmental aspects and for the preservation of the rights of the indigenous peoples. The Arctic is generally treated as a special case in such matters on account of its uniqueness and its own peculiar characteristics. Less attention, however, has been given to the parallel development of the regions of the interior that would be connected to the new coastal communications hubs. The geopolitical implications arising from such development would probably be of lesser consequence and importance in international terms. Indeed since the eighties, in spite of calls from the Kremlin, the lack of change in the demography of the main cities situated to the east of the Urals is notable, which has also been the case of all those cities along the route of the Trans-Siberian railway line28. The growth experienced by many of these cities was cut short by the crisis which ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Most writings that discuss the importance of the Northern Sea Route focus on the possible savings it could bring to the manufacturing economies of the West Pacific coast (although factors such as the competitive advantages brought about by reductions in transport costs and delivery as part of a just-in-time supply chain are rarely mentioned). Nevertheless, the changes referred to here go beyond the quantitative aspect of a reduction of up to 40% in the distance from Hong-Kong or Yokohama and centre on the qualitative changes that would take place in the Siberian Steppes. 26 For the moment, Moscow is set to make the Arctic a priority region for the operations of its Naval Forces. See:“Arctic Made Priority for Russian Navy in 2014”, RIA Novosti, 2 December 2013. http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131202/185208917/Arctic-Made-Priority-for-Russian-Navy-in-2014.html 27 http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/07/03/internacional/1278169407.html 28 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Siberian_Cities_Graph.svg
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