Russia’s Invention of the Arctic
From the Soviet “Sector” to Putin’s “Aquatorium”
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
For a century, there’s has been a good deal of talk in Soviet and Russian public opinion about a “sector” in the Arctic Ocean. The term may have remained undefined under international law, but the idea of a supposedly natural zone of influence in the far north has left a mark on Russia’s politics to this today and shapes portrayals of how the Arkis is to be developed. The core area of the symbolically charged Arctic is the Northern Sea Route. It is not only a trans-Arctic connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific, but also a screen for projecting the extension of the Russian state’s power and national greatness into the ocean.
(Osteuropa 3-4/2026, pp. 119–140)