Is Global Icebreaker Race Imminent?

... design and build seven massive icebreakers and two big Arctic ferries. One can argue that there is nothing wrong with international competition, including in the icebreaker building industry. However, the devil is in the details. For Russia, building icebreakers is not a matter of geopolitical choice or of great power hype, but an absolute social and economic necessity. Out of the overall 4 million people who currently reside north of the Arctic Circle, approximately half live in Russia. The largest Arctic cities also happen to be Russian—Murmansk,...