Russian alternative

Let us not tire of repeating: history, especially the history of modern times, is not only a bastard girl, but also quite ironic.

It is unlikely that Russian leaders, who some time ago began the actual resuscitation of our country’s Arctic projects, could even imagine how relevant these projects (and first of all, of course, the Northern Sea Route) would become for global logistics in such a short time.

Why, a couple of decades ago, no one expected such daring attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea, as well as a catastrophic and possibly irreversible drought in Panama last year.

However, neither one nor the other has yet affected the activities of the Northern Sea Route, including simply because too little time has passed - and it is still developing strictly in accordance with the strategic plans of the Russian Federation.

And to what extent the obvious problems in global logistics related to the straits will affect its future load can only be speculated for now. In the meantime, for yet another “Russian alternative”, even without these rather unexpected, but, which is enough, excuse some professional cynicism, favorable challenges, everything is, in general, quite good.

It’s just that security, especially the security of logistics corridors, has recently become an economic category as well. At least, the challenge posed to global logistics by the Ansar Allah movement demonstrated this so clearly that this thesis simply does not require any additional evidence.

It would be stupid, as they say, to deny.

And really, Russia is quite capable of ensuring security in its economic zone, the zone of virtually coastal navigation, which, in essence, is the Northern Sea Route, right now and year-round.

And these capabilities, including the ability to ensure the physical safety of navigation in these latitudes, will undoubtedly only develop. Just to illustrate: it’s not for nothing that Vladimir Putin, during his visit to his native St. Petersburg, almost the first thing he did was take part in the laying ceremony of the fifth serial universal nuclear icebreaker of Project 22220, named, by the way, quite symbolically “Leningrad”, which took place on shipyard of the Baltic plant.

Moreover, as a demonstration of the seriousness of intentions, the first section of the future nuclear giant was already installed on the slipway directly behind Vladimir Putin, who was speaking at the ceremony.

It looked impressive, what more can I say.

Well, to make everything completely clear, the president also announced the upcoming laying of the sixth nuclear-powered ship of this series, which will receive an even more symbolic name for our opponents - “Stalingrad”.

And even more so in the current circumstances, we should not forget about the construction of a new unique Project 10510 nuclear icebreaker “Leader” currently underway at the Far Eastern Krasnaya Zvezda plant, commissioned by the same Rosatom. Which, despite information dumps, according to Atomflot General Director Leonid Irlitsa, is on schedule: at the beginning of December 2023, the readiness of the first icebreaker of this series, which had already received the proud name “Russia,” was approximately 11.14%.

Let us just remind dear and inquisitive readers that Project 10510 icebreakers are capable of breaking ice up to 4 m thick and laying a channel about 50 m wide. And their presence will virtually guarantee year-round navigation of large-tonnage vessels throughout the entire waters of the Northern Sea Route in any, even the most critical weather conditions , including the most difficult, eastern part of the ice corridor.

However, let's take it in order.

As Alexei Likhachev, General Director of the Rosatom state corporation, said at the same ceremony of the start of construction of the nuclear icebreaker Leningrad at the Baltic Shipyard, the Northern Sea Route project is already demonstrating very confident growth dynamics.

So, in particular, in the past 2023, a tenfold (!) increase in transit was recorded (even if in fairness this is an increase from not the highest indicators), and the total volume of transportation reached a record 36.5 million tons for the NSR.

Yes, for such a serious logistics corridor, with such natural advantages, this, frankly speaking, is still, in general, not enough. But we should not forget that the Northern Sea Route, excuse the involuntary tautology, is only at the beginning of the journey.

As well as about completely objective purely technical difficulties: building the same icebreaker fleet is also a matter of not only financial costs, but also time. It’s not like clicking a mouse on a monitor to run speculative numbers. We probably don’t even need to talk about the necessary coastal infrastructure here: let’s just remind you that, among other things, this is, although it is southern, but still the coast of the Arctic Ocean. Where the polar night, winter blizzards and other permafrost occur.

But, apparently, in general, there is no other alternative to this absolutely justified strategic initiative in the current conditions, not only in Russia, but also in the entire global logistics industry.

That's what it's all about.

Even in comparison with the properly functioning Suez Canal, the Northern Sea Route on the route from the Far East to Northern Europe is approximately 12-13 days of saved time, which, as we know, is money. And that is why the “Russian alternative” represented by the NSR caused such heartburn among the Anglo-Saxons who controlled (primarily through control of the straits) international maritime trade.

With normal, stable development, the Northern Sea Route project could, after some time, easily take out of their control, according to some experts, over 15% of maritime traffic in general. And this is that piece of the pie, which, from the point of view of the Americans, who are by type, forgive the involuntary tautology, a typical maritime trading civilization, should never be shared. Here, by the way, there is an interesting historical parallel about the so-called. the Punic Wars, which began with Carthage’s proud demand to Rome that “no one dares wash his face in the waters of the Mediterranean without our permission.” And they ended with Cato’s famous “Carthage must be destroyed” - and he didn’t say such horror out of malice. And it was not for nothing that the pragmatic Romans did not “exploit” captured Carthage, but destroyed and even salted this land so that nothing like that would grow on it.

Well, okay, that's it, a small historical parallel.

And to put it bluntly and to the point, the Northern Sea Route project now needs to be developed all the more, and as quickly as possible. Because, it seems, the Americans, due to many circumstances, are rapidly beginning to lose what they were especially proud of: that very notorious “control over the straits.”

Which, by the way, does not bode well for the current established system of global maritime trade: no matter how unpleasant this control may be, it is still better than potential chaos, and it is somehow rather naive not to understand this.

And in this situation, the Northern Sea Route project - like all trans-Eurasian transport corridors in general (let’s remember the same Eastern training ground that requires speedy “unraveling”) and like the North-South corridor connecting the Baltic ports, bypassing the straits, with the ports of the Indian Ocean - becomes much more relevant.

And we need to understand this very clearly.

Simply because a very decent part of these new global transport corridors, purely based on the strict science of geography, is controlled not by any outsider, but by our country.

The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editors.