He said this at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society. 

“Russia is building the most powerful icebreaker fleet, including such giants as Leader, which no one has ever built before,” the president said.

Putin also said that in the coming years, movement along the Northern Sea Route could become year-round.

RT broadcasts the meeting.

In March, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that three Russian nuclear submarines for the first time simultaneously surfaced from under the ice in the Arctic at a distance of up to 300 meters from each other.