“The Arctic Council did not consider the issue of a ban or any restrictions on economic activities, including the production of hydrocarbons, in the Arctic,” RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.
Earlier, the European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginius Sinkevicius, said that the European Commission had proposed introducing a global moratorium on the production of hydrocarbon fuels in the Arctic.
In September, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak spoke about oil and gas reserves in the Russian Arctic.
In December 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will grow in the Arctic and northern territories in the next decades.