![\"Russia](\"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Arctic_Ocean_bathymetric_features.png\")
Russia is claiming a \u201cblood right interest\u201d in an underwater ridge that extends from the northern tip of Greenland to Siberia, and is gathering evidence to claim sovereign rights over it at the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gakkel Ridge is 1,800 kilometres of underwater hills that make up the largest area of the Arctic Ocean that none of the world\u2019s eight Arctic nations currently have sovereign rights over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kirill Degtyarev, head of the Geological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, made the statement Dec. 16 in an interview<\/a> with Russian news outlet Interfax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[The ridge] is not just in the zone of our interest, but frankly, in the zone of blood right interest,\u201d he said in the article, headlined \u201cThe new task of expanding the Russian Arctic shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A sovereign right over Gakkel Ridge would give Russia exclusivity to \u201cexplore and exploit its living and non-living resources, including minerals, oil, and life forms like clams that live fixed to the sea floor\u201d under the UN Law of the Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia and Canada have the largest and second-largest Arctic coastlines. Behind them are Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland and the United States, which take up less than half of the remaining coastline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think any time we see Russia talking about vital interests or blood interests, these are things that will obviously attract the attention of Canada and its allies because of how we\u2019ve seen Russia weaponize those kind of ideas in other parts of the world,\u201d said Whitney Lackenbauer, a professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., whose specialties include circumpolar history and political studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Current geopolitics in the Arctic depend on plate tectonic processes that happened \u201cmillions and millions of years\u201d ago, Lackenbauer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the article, Degtyarev said that Russia is trying to scientifically prove to the UN that when the continents were being formed, Gakkel Ridge was a natural underwater extension of Eurasia rather than an independent formation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If successful, the evidence will back Russia\u2019s claim for sovereign rights over the ridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the process all countries have to follow, and so far Russia \u201chas fully adhered to international law,\u201d Lackenbauer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The country has made several unsuccessful applications to assert rights over Gakkel Ridge over the years in 2001, 2015, 2021 and 2023. While it\u2019s not entirely clear what is driving Russia\u2019s interest, Lackenbauer said the region could potentially be a source of minerals, gas or oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, other Arctic nations like Denmark might be able to make a case for sovereign rights over some areas of Gakkel Ridge as well. In that case, the two nations will have to find a diplomatic solution to divide the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd right now, given what Russia has done with its brutal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and where we find ourselves in terms of geopolitics, it\u2019s really hard to imagine,\u201d Lackenbauer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n