Paul Goble
Staunton, Mar. 31 – Russia’s shortcomings in responding to oil spills in the Kerch Strait in 2024 highlight Moscow’s failure to be in a position to deal with oil spills in the far more inaccessible regions of the Arctic along the Northern Sea Route and the probability that any accidents will lead to disaster, researchers at Norway’s Bellona Foundation warn.
Veslovod Levchenko and Charles Digges, researchers at the Foundation that gained international fame for its exposure of Soviet nuclear dumping in the Arctic, say that conclusion flows from a Moscow report to the International Maritime Organization about the 2024 spills in the Kerch Strait (themoscowtimes.com/2026/03/31/the-northern-sea-route-is-risky-and-russia-is-not-prepared-a92388).
The report, which was filed unconscionably late, the two Bellona researchers say, showed that the Russian authorities were not able to cope with the relatively small oil spill in a much more accessible southern region where warmer temperatures mean that it should have been relatively easy to cope.
Moreover, Levchenko and Digges point out, instead of welcoming popular help, the Russian authorities discouraged put obstacles in the way of such assistance and thus transformed what should have been a minor matter that could quickly have been managed into a major crisis that has still not been fully resolved.
Dealing with similar accidents in the Arctic is much more difficult, they say, and “Russia is not prepared.” At lower temperatures, oil behaved differently; and it is far harder to get personnel and equipment in place in the event of any accident. As a result, even small spills there can have major and long-lasting consequences.
This danger is now being exacerbated by other Russian policies: boosterism about the NSR, the use of aging ships some of which are of uncertain provenance, and the failure of the authorities to set up bases with the personnel and equipment to respond to accidents when they inevitably happen.
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