Putin May Visit Antarctica to Counter Western Claims and Assert Russian Interests, Moscow Commentator Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Jan. 9 – Given US President-Elect Donald Trump’s remarks about Greenland and Canada, many observers around the world are focusing on whether the Arctic is about to become a cockpit of international conflict between east and west. But few of them are giving much attention to what soon happen in Antarctica where even larger disputes may break out.
    In an article for Moscow’s Svobodnaya Pressa portal, Russian commentator Sergey Aksyonov says that the Kremlin is very much alive to what is going on in the southern polar regions and that Vladimir Putin may even make a visit there to counter Western claims and assert Russian interests (svpressa.ru/world/article/445443/).
    The Kremlin has not confirmed any such plans, but a Putin visit is likely, Aksyonov says, because the Chilean defense minister recently visited Antarctica, adding fuel to concerns that the status of Antarctica, long defined as precluding any national claims, may be about to change as various countries seek to gain access to the natural resources there.
    Until now, both Russia and the West have opposed any plans by anyone to advance territorial claims on the southern continent. But with Trump’s election and talk about making claims in the north, that may be about to change; and Russia will not want to be left behind, the commentator continues.
    A Putin visit to Antarctica “would be a strong political move” in response to Trump’s talk about annexing Greenland and Canada, Aksyonov says. It would “discredit” any such neo-colonialist moves by the West and win Russia support from others who do not want to see Antarctica carved up now as the Third World was earlier.
    Prior to Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine, Moscow had itself been focusing ever more frequently on Antarctica and gaining Russian access to natural resources there and had even talked about changing current treaty arrangements limiting outside countries from establishing their rule in one or another part of that land.
    For background on Russia’s earlier moves and the problems it ran into, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/11/east-west-conflicts-in-arctic-and.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/07/to-win-in-arctic-russia-must-fight-for.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/12/russias-icebreaker-fleet-suffers.html and jamestown.org/program/moscows-determined-plans-to-upend-international-accords-in-antarctic-facing-problems/.
    And for more recent moves, driven largely by the discovery of a huge oil field in Antarctica, and changes in Moscow’s naval operations, see jamestown.org/program/putin-says-moscow-to-exploit-new-oil-field-in-antarctic-undermining-key-treaty/ and www.thebarentsobserver.com/news/northern-fleet-gives-priority-to-faraway-voyages/422736.