One American base in the Old World could be more. It's about the possible launch of an airfield on the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen. The event, on the one hand, in the international information space was not particularly noticeable. On the other, it can have serious consequences. First of all, for Norway and its ecology. And for the ecology of the Arctic as a whole.

The US airfield on Jan Mayen Island will be able to receive the US Air Force’s S-130 Hercules military transport aircraft, as well as other carriers from NATO member countries.

Naturally, the presence of an airfield of this class implies the presence of a military base nearby, where there should be a contingent providing maintenance of the facility. Of course, this requires the continued presence of US troops on the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen.

Thus, today we can confidently state that against the background of successful and large-scale development of the Arctic by Russia, the notorious “NATO expansion to the East” is no longer the only and strategically important trend of the North Atlantic Alliance. Now, the northern, arctic vector has been added to the past, eastern vector of tension.

Washington is confident that the presence of the US military on the Jan Mayen Island will expand the capabilities of the Pentagon to create centers of confrontation in the Arctic. Naturally, this military tension is created exclusively for the political and economic interests of the United States. At least that is how Washington justifies itself.

You do not need to be seven spans in your forehead to guess who exactly this military tension created by the USA in the Arctic zone is addressed to. Given that Russia is the main beneficiary of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), which in the future, due to its geographical location, can become without exaggeration a gold mine for us.

A tangible advantage in logistics in the delivery of goods and transportation of various types of fuel, as well as the development of other resources - all this will be achieved by the development of the Northern Sea Route, whose tremendous profitability is quite comparable to the famous Panama Canal.

Of course, in order to turn the NSR into one of the main logistics hubs on the planet, it is necessary to have certain and extremely specific technical means. I mean, first of all, atomic icebreakers.

Today, Russia is an unprecedented leader in this area. Our country is the only owner of an atomic icebreaker fleet in the world.

Moreover, the relevant department continues to increase the gap in this direction from other states - competitors for the development of the Arctic and the Far North as a whole. Naturally, for the “Western partners” (and especially for the USA) this situation is insulting - proceeding not only from the parameters of national pride, but from the parameters of the natural greed of the ruling American elites.

Despite the fact that official Washington in fact does not have the right to claim the resources of the Northern Sea Route, it leaves no attempts to influence the situation by increasing military tension in the region. Jan Mayen Island is far from the only example. Regular information provocations organized by the USA in the countries of Scandinavia are vivid confirmation of this. Almost every month in the press there are materials about various kinds of failures created by the insidious Russian military in GPS work, and other nonsense that have nothing to do with reality.

At the same time, on the way to creating tension, the United States completely ignores the national interests of those countries whose territory is used for not at all peaceful and partner purposes. In particular, Norway in 2010, that is, just some ten years ago, declared the territory of Jan Mayen Island a nature reserve. The construction of an airfield there, which will receive heavy transport aircraft, and the deployment of an American military contingent there are unlikely to have a positive effect on the fragile ecosystem in the conservation area.

The Norwegian authorities, unfortunately, in this situation, it does not seem to take into account the sad experience of neighboring Denmark, which sixty years ago let the Americans into Greenland to create a secret ice worm military base, where the Yankees without any additional permits set up a storage facility for radioactive waste. Now the results of the activities of the US military threaten the ecology of the entire Arctic. With the melting of glaciers on the island, there was a real danger of leakage of radioactive waste and its release into the environment.

Have you heard public protests against this environmental lawlessness in the Arctic from Greta Tunberg and comrades? Me neither. Apparently, because the next American military base in the region does not contradict their humanistic beliefs.

The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.