A Russian government service is to evaluate a report on the exploration of the shelf west of the Yamal Peninsula.

The chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, Jimmy Stotts, said last week he wants Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon to invite Inuit representatives to a meeting of five Arctic coastal states next month in Chelsea, Que., a small town just outside Ottawa.

Arctic ice melting could cost global agriculture, real estate and insurance anywhere from $US2.4 trillion ($2.8 billion) to $US24 trillion by 2050 in damage from rising sea levels, floods and heat waves, according to a report released on Friday, says smh.com.au.

Just few weeks before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrives in Oslo for a state visit, both Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Russia’s Vladimir Putin highlight the positive dynamics in talks over the disputed waters in the Barents Sea.

The high North is Norway’s most important strategic area of interest and our aim for the region is continued stability and sustainable development. The Norwegian Defense will contribute with sufficient military capacity attend to its missions while keeping the High North as an area of low tensions, says Minister of Defense Grete Faremo.

According to envirotech-online.com, rising sea levels and warmer temperatures caused by Arctic ice melting could cost governments around the world billions of dollars, scientists have claimed.According to a report published by the Bard College in New York, the global cost of the ice melt this year could be between $61 billion (£39.23 billion) and $371 billion.

The Arctic Marine Institute in Arkhangelsk will strengthen local research on Arctic environment and ocean affairs.

The North of Russia under the threat of depopulation. Since the year 2000 the population in the Russian part of the Barents region decreased by 462.000, or by almost 11 percent.

Shtokman partners Gazprom, Statoil and Total might decide to only feed the gas from the field into pipelines to the European marked and drop the plans to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Tundra areas of the north may seem like endless wilderness with a huge potential for industrial activity. However, the activities of the industrial companies pose a challenge to the indigenous peoples' traditional use of the pasture lands and the reindeers migrating routes.