Russia

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Facts & Figures

AC member since 1996


Active Polar Icebreakers

38

Coordinates

Moscow: 55.7558° N, 37.6173° E
Murmansk: 68.9585° N, 33.0827° E

Population

146 million, approximately 2.5 million in the Arctic

Land Area

17,098 million km2

Coastline

37,653 km

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Russia’s Arctic territory stretches along 24,140 kilometers of coastline along the Arctic Ocean and waters above the Arctic Circle from the Barents Sea in the west at the border to Norway to the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk in the far east. Russia’s coastline accounts for 53 percent of the Arctic Ocean coastline and covers the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, and East Siberian Sea. Throughout the country’s Arctic waters a number of archipelagos can be found, most prominently the Novaya Zemlya in the Kara Sea, Severnaya Zemlya in the Laptev Sea, and the New Siberian Islands in the East Siberian Sea. To the north-east of the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, Russia’s Franz Josef Land is located just 950 kilometers from the North Pole. Russia’s closest point to the North Pole is Cape Fligely on Rudolf Island. The Cape is a mere 911 kilometers from the pole.

Russia’s Arctic territory is dominated by three major river systems, the Yenisey River in the west discharges in the Kara Sea, the Lena River empties in the Laptev Sea, and the Kolyma River ends in the East Siberian Sea. While these rivers are frozen for parts of the year, they represent a vital transportation route for parts of the year, aided in part by a specialized fleet of shallow-draft ice breakers to ensure access to communities and cities along these rivers.

Temperatures across Russia’s Arctic and sub-Arctic territory are the coldest recorded outside of Antarctica. The village of Oymyakon in the Yakutsk region regularly sees temperatures below -50°C and recorded a record low -71.2°C in 1924. Daily average low temperatures during winter, while inevitably varying across such large swaths of land, range from –20°C –40°C. During the summer month average daily high temperatures are between 15-25 °C but can reach as high as 35°C especially in Russia’s sub-Arctic interior regions. In the summer of 2018, the Russian Northern coastal regions also experienced an unprecedented heatwave with temperatures exceeding 30°C.

This page was updated on 1 August 2022. If we have missed anything, please contact info@thearcticinstitute.org.