Igor Kraevsky, an analyst of Otkrytie FC:

 — The problems and perspectives of the Northern Sea Route development shall be resolved and implemented at the general state level.

On August 26 in Pevek, General Director of Atomflot Federal State Unitary Enterprise Vyacheslav Ruksh said that the optimal price for Atomflot services related to the Northern Sea Route pilotage should be only a bit higher than the price for the Suez Canal pilotage. This information was provided by the External Affairs Department of Atomflot Federal State Unitary Enterprise.

Igor Kraevsky, an analyst of Otkrytie FC:

The interest towards the Northern Sea Route is mainly associated with the beginning of the development of arctic offshore deposits, global warming and consequently, development of the shipping industry in the Arctic Region.

Nevertheless, this transit route, just like the Trans Siberian Route, remains unclaimed. In the last decade the flow of containerized cargo transported by transit traffic on the Trans Siberian Route from South-East Asia to Europe and back was reduced by 10 fold, and during the same period the cargo turn-over of the Northern Sea Route was reduced by 5 fold.

The major cause of the absence of demand for these routes is a political factor, namely transit risks for foreign companies, as well as poor quality and considerable runout of the infrastructure together with deterioration of the specialized fleet itself. In this context, the problems and perspectives of the transit route development shall be resolved and implemented not at the level of Atomflot as an independent structure, but at the general state level. In other words, the development of the Northern Sea Route shall be complex and integrated in the development of Arctic marine transport infrastructure as well as supported by Russian national transport policy.

The measures for the infrastructure development shall include modernization of the base ports, improvement of icebreaker hydrographic, emergency and hydrometeorological support as well as development and modernization of the communication system.

As for economy cut, I have come across the following figures: in case of usage of the Rotterdam – Yokohama standard route the distance of the southern route through Suez Canal is equal to 11,205 nautical miles. In case of usage of the Northern Sea Route, the distance is reduced by 3,860 nautical miles or by 34%.