About The Tools.

Ria published the piece titled States Want To Open Northern Front Against Russia. The author notes:

Глупо было бы надеяться, что, отыграв и бросив Украину, американские элиты перестанут давить на Россию. Объективно говоря, этот прессинг — их единственная надежда еще немного оттянуть свой конец. Следующая горячая точка, куда американцы планируют влезть с ногами, расположена в очень холодном регионе, — это Арктика, наше Приполярье.Уже строятся новые ледоколы, на регулярной основе проводятся в приполярной зоне учения НАТО, американские авианосцы бороздят северные моря. Норвегию, Швецию и Финляндию — северный фланг альянса — усиленно дрессируют для противостояния с Россией. "НАТО должна нарастить свое присутствие в Арктике", — говорит Йенс Столтенберг. Рупор американской военщины The Washington Post сообщил недавно, что Арктика становится зоной Большой игры — то есть стратегического противостояния англосаксов и России.

Translation: It would be foolish to hope that, having played out and abandoned Ukraine, the American elites will stop putting pressure on Russia. Objectively speaking, this pressure is their only hope to delay their end a little longer. The next hot spot where the Americans plan to climb in with their feet is located in a very cold region - this is the Arctic, our Subpolar region. New icebreakers are already being built, NATO exercises are regularly held in the subpolar zone, and American aircraft carriers ply the northern seas. Norway, Sweden and Finland - the northern flank of the alliance - are being heavily trained to confront Russia. "NATO should increase its presence in the Arctic," says Jens Stoltenberg. The mouthpiece of the American military The Washington Post recently reported that the Arctic is becoming a zone of the Great Game - that is, the strategic confrontation between the Anglo-Saxons and Russia.

 

The piece is good in general since gives the background of the issue of the Arctic Sea Route and a sort of panic which sets among arctic nations of Europe, to the point that they are trying to convince Washington (good luck with that, LOL) that things are not as bad:

Europe’s Northern Flank Is More Stable Than You Think. Are NATO, Russia, and China about to play a new Great Game in the Arctic? Don’t hold your breath.

Obviously, it is stable since Russia has no interest in dealing with Scandinavia, as Finns are now learning the hard way. But, Russia sure as hell readies to defend her Arctic possessions. For that she already has the tools, while NATO doesn't. The issue is not only ice-breakers, where Russia is in the league of her own, especially in nuclear ice-breakers.  

Here is Ivan Papanin of pr. 23550 fitting out:

Here is Purga for Russian Coast Guard getting ready:

And this is how they will look like upon completion with those lovely 3M54 and 3M14 Kalibrs installed on them. 

These are respectable ice-breakers of almost 7,000 ton standard displacement which make similar Norwegian patrol ice-breaker Svalbard with its 57-mm gun look like a leisure vessel.
 

And all this only as far as combat ice-breakers go, the rest: surface and submarine forces of the Northern Fleet and massive combat air, air defense and coastal component--it is not even fair to compare, including US and Canada's capabilities combined. Recall, that Russian Northern Fleet is not JUST the fleet anymore, it is now a whole military district onto itself. Once one considers the fact of the US Navy's SSNs having some serious issues with readiness, while Russia builds up her submarine component in Arctic, it becomes clear that any attempts to challenge Russia in Arctic are bound to run into the problems from the get go. There is simply not enough tools for that. Simple as that. After all, one doesn't go hunting for bear with a kitchen knife.

First Down "Ivan Papanin", More To Go.

You may recall few years ago I wrote about them: Icebreakers With Strategic Reach.Today, Russia launched first of them (this will be series) Ivan Papanin (after famous Soviet Polar explorer). Here is how 8,500 tons of displacement looked today. She (rather He) is a beauty (my hat off to guys from Airbase forum, via Admiralty Wharfs).

Ivan Papanin

Yet another step in Russia weaponizing ice-breakers (wink, wink). The so called Arctic Patrol Ship will carry helicopter, artillery complex, manpads and will be able to take on containers for notorious Kalibr missiles. A rather mighty package for escort, monitoring, rescue and, of course, strike functions. These ships are capable of breaking through 1.5 meters thick ice, which is very impressive.  Two of them are under construction but rumor has it that the number will be significantly larger. First two are a test run for a concept as a whole. Follow-on ships may have some parameters tweaked as experience and data begins to flow in. Here is how they will look upon completion:

I guess this answers the question where Russia's attention is focused upon. After all, brand new Resonance (Rezonans-NE), over-the-horizon radar, was launched today at Novaya Zemlya (in Russian). This thing tracks and develops targeting against anything, including hypersonic weapons (up to M=20), I will omit here jokes about "stealth". My main question in this situation is this: what is the pay for officers who serve there, not to mention service ratio: is it one year as two plus insane pay rate? To the best of my knowledge there are no good bars or shopping malls there, but sure as hell there is a former nuclear testing ground. So, not exactly family-friendly place this Rogachevo is, especially when polar bears get a party going, but it is totally conceivable that eventually even there one will be able to buy a bottle of Jack without flying out to Arkhangelsk. Just a thought.   

Icebreakers With Strategic Reach.

Russia is a huge player in Arctic and Soviet/Russia's history there is one of incredible scientific effort, resilience, courage and of very real economics. Moreover, Russian fleet of icebreakers, both conventional and nuclear, is simply without rivals. In May 2016 Russian Navy ordered two Arctic patrol ice-breakers ("corvettes") of Project 23550.  Today, the first of them, Ivan Papanin, was laid down at Admiralty Wharf in St. Petersburg. These ships will have a bizarre weapons' suite. In a classic Russian tradition of "you can not spoil the porridge with butter" (kashu maslom ne isportish), new ice-breakers will have 76-mm gun, machine guns and, of course, and you may have guessed it--they will be able to carry a notorious Kalibr complex, possibly both with land-attack and anti-shipping configuration. 

    

These will displace 6000+ tons.

Here is the plaque:  

                   

The struggle for Arctic resources and the importance of Northern Sea Route will continue to grow  and appearance of these ships seems to be a good response to a very dynamic situation. It will get interesting there in coming decades, especially with a development of Arctic Continental Shelf. If the experience of  Cod Wars is any indicator (and it is) things may get nasty pretty fast even between allies, as HMS Diomede found out the hard-way when was rammed by Iceland's cannon boat Baldur. 

        

HMS Diomede

Hopefully, things may get sorted out in a much more civilized manner, but it is always good to have a good anti-shipping missile complex just in case. Especially when one has to guard things of this nature:

              

In the end, there is always a threat of a Social Justice Warriors, aka Green Peace.