At the start of construction of the nuclear-powered icebreaker “Leningrad” on Friday in St. Petersburg at the shipyard, Putin said that the “Stalingrad” would also be laid down next year. Russia, which has the largest icebreaking fleet in the world, lays claim to the mineral resources stored in the Arctic.
Putin said other ships would also be built for work in the Arctic. Russia is using the icebreakers to make the Northern Sea Route from Novaya Zemlya on the Kara Sea to the Bering Strait navigable. A good 36 million tons of goods were transported by ship last year – a record, said the general director of the state-owned company Rosatom, Alexei Likhachyov, at the ceremony marking the start of construction of the “Leningrad”. The port infrastructure is now in place to handle more than 40 million tons annually.
Eighth nuclear icebreaker in the Arctic fleet
The “Leningrad” will be the eighth nuclear icebreaker in the Arctic fleet, which also includes 34 diesel-powered ships. Leningrad is the former name for St. Petersburg. The name for the new icebreaker is intended to commemorate the Leningrad blockade from 1941 to 1944.
In St. Petersburg this Saturday (January 27th), Putin is commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of the encirclement of the metropolis on the Gulf of Finland. According to historians, 1.2 million people died in the approximately 900 days of the siege by the German Wehrmacht in World War II.
