Blog: Russia

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https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2016/08/29/russia-expands-national-park-to-protect-franz-josef-land-archipelago/

Russia Expands National Park to Protect Franz Josef Land Archipelago: National Geographic Applauds Move to Protect Area of Critical Biological Importance

What has happened is that Russia has a beautiful piece of land that has some endangered species such as narwhals, polar bears, walruses, and bowhead whales, and they have declared it a national park. The land they declared a national park includes the Franz Josef Land archipelago, which is considered to be one of the most northern points in Russia which is inhabited by only military personal. It is also the largest piece of protected land on the Arctic Ocean. That is the geographical importance of this land. This is key land as I said earlier it is home to many endangered species which protects the animals and the land they inhabit. The land is also crucial in the sense of Biological Importance because of Global Warming and the fact that this region is melting away. This move has landed much applause from many environmental groups, and has kind of set a standard for what the world should be doing   to help save our beautiful Earth.

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The article I chose was called "Passenger Plane Drew Fire in Syria, Russia Says" from the New York Times, link here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/world/middleeast/syria-plane-israel.html?searchResultPosition=23

No more than a few weeks ago Russia was dragged into a minor dispute involving an Israeli passenger plane with the title Beirut Lebanon (model Airbus A320) when it was caught under fire. The plane with a populace of one-hundred seventy-two passengers was attacked by Syria and was forced to make an emergency landing - a landing at one of Russia's military bases. The military base in question was called Hmeimim Air Base, which was interesting given that the base in question is located in Syria. The cause behind the attack in question was most likely caused by an Israeli airstrike that occurred very close to the time prior to the aircraft's attack. This, combined with what the Russians have reported on in their own light has sparked a debacle between Israel and Russia, though it culminated in nothing more than minor twitter discourse between generals, with talk of hating Israel, and conspiracy mostly dominating the argument. Such conspiracies being tactics like using civilian aircraft to protect military ones, and baseless accusations of general militaristic competence, or lack thereof. What happened was all-in-all a very strange occurrence involving country interactions and cause-and-effect and a fascinating dose of irony when it comes to the base's geographical location.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-21/gazprom-ukraine-agree-on-transit-volumes-settle-legal-issues

Gazprom is a Russian natural gas company who is Europe's largest and (mostly) cheapest supplier of natural gas. The reason Ukraine is involved is because they physically have the main pipelines running through their country, from Russia into Europe. Not too long ago Russia had been planning to completely cease the delivery of natural gas to Europe via Ukraine, instead opting for alternative pipelines they began constructing under Baltic sea, dubbed Nord Stream 2. This pipeline has been opposed by the US and sanctions against Russia forced their sub-contractors to cease construction of the pipeline, for now.

This new deal between Russia and Ukraine, which guarantees the continued use of these pipelines through the end of 2024, is important for multiple reasons:

  1. It ensures (at least through the end of 2024) that Europe does not have a massive shortage of natural gas, which would result in a huge energy crisis.
  2. As a part of this deal, Russia and Ukraine have both mutually agreed to drop various lawsuits held against each other relating to the pipelines. This alone is seen as a landmark move that could pave the way for a friendlier future between Russia and Ukraine.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51423110?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/ce1qrvlegnyt/russia&link_location=live-reporting-story

Article: Russia to boost Venezuela ties amid US Pressures

This article was about Russia helping Venezuela help the South American nation deal with the growing US pressures. The US has imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s airline Conviasa. Russia provided military boost and economic cooperation’s with Venezuela. Mr. Lavrov basically say that Russia is giving Venezuela full support with economic, commercial and investments in South America. A geographic concept that is involved with this story is spatial interaction. Russia is giving military items and also some other resources to Venezuela to help support the South American nation from the US growing pressures.

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Russia joins the climate crusade - in its own way

https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2019/1031/Russia-joins-the-climate-crusade-in-its-own-way

During 2019 wildfires raged across Russia so much so that at it's highest point 2.6 million hectares of land were on fire. This and other situations brought to culmination the issues the   peoples of Russia having been fighting the Kremlin about concerning global warming. Currently the issue of a Green Party to expand the scientific and public knowledge about the issues global warming is causing Russia are underway. Though they do not look promising as their have been attempts for similar programs in the past which have all ultimately failed.

The issues of global warming in Russia are not correlated to one specific area, as most of Russia is considered to have a humid cold climate. Areas of tundra similar to north western Alaska are covered in permafrost throughout the year. In areas such as Chersky in Northeast Siberia this permafrost is melting releasing massive amounts of animal waste from thousands of years ago in puddles of ooze in the lakes surrounded by tundra. Methane bubbles trapped in ice flows and also in permafrost which tundra lays a top of is also releasing this methane. This not only affects the people living in these areas but also the geographical proportions of land. With the higher temperatures this means the introduction of new species to areas they are unaccustomed to as they search for somewhere to breed and live.

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Russia to push its newfound advantage on cod

https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/russia-to-push-its-newfound-advantage-on-cod

Current event:

The Russian government has published a “Strategy for Development of the Seafood Industry through 2030', which includes investment in ports throughout the Russian far east region (as well as other northern ports in western Russia). The plan is also an attempt to grow the aquaculture industry in northern Russia, as the region is increasingly hospitable for fish farming.

There was some concern expressed by a head of the Russian fishery union, who noted that the investment wasn’t nearly enough for the amount of additional fish the plan claimed to create.

Geographic relationship:

Most of the investment is going towards far eastern ports, which have slowly fallen into disrepair as the post-soviet government focuses more and more on the core region. However, a recent need to find new food sources (Russia is very reliant on nearby countries for food imports due to its climate) is causing Moscow to consider the development of this region's fisheries and farms a high priority.

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      The article I found on the gas pipeline “Nord stream 2' was quite fascinating. The Gas pipeline would be 760 miles under the Baltic Sea. The pipeline would stretch along the original pipeline “Nord stream' From Ust-Luga, Russia to Greifswald, Germany increasing the gas going under the Baltic sea to 55 Billion cubic meters per year. This would Double the capacity to distribute gas from Russia into Europe. Russia as a whole already distributes 40% of Gas in Europe. Where the EU would prefer to get their gas from Norway and the United States. Because of this second pipeline Ukraine is worried because along with the TurkStream project which is the “TurkStream is the first system with a diameter of 81 centimeters to be laid at depths exceeding 2 kilometers. The two offshore pipelines are made up of thousands of individual pipe joints of 12 meters in length'(https://turkstream.info/project/) This will make it more likely for Russia to be able to bypass the Ukrainian pipelines.    

Article: Nord Stream 2: Go-ahead for Russian gas pipeline angers Ukraine https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50247793

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Russia Blog: Jason Kells Y2020M02D08

The article I chose can be found at this URL

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-russia/russia-sets-up-siberia-quarantine-to-prepare-for-potential-virus-spread-idUSKBN1ZY13N

This article is about the spread of the Corona virus to Russia and how they are handling the quarantine.   They have had there first 2 confirmed cases in Siberia.   Siberia is a region of Russia in the far east bordering the northern edge of China.    The article goes on to say that school ad public events in this region are being closed for the spread of the Flu but due to the location in relation to China fear is spreading quickly.   The government is reaching out asking people to not stock piles masks.

 

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/world/europe/belarus-lukashenko-russia-putin.html

Putin Reject Oil Deal With Belarus, Increasing Pressure for Merger

A meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Alexsandr G Lukashenko of Belarus where they discussed Russia providing cut-rate oil supplies for Belarus' failing economy. Russia has rejected the plea and instead plan to untied the two countries making Belarus a union state. Russia has since stoped selling oil to Belarus and they have since bought oil from Norway.  Belarus is a country to the north of Russia, to the south of Lithuania, to the east of Poland, and to the west of Ukraine. Since Belarus was a former Soviet land and fear an repture from Russia. Geographically Belarus is right next to Russia and is dependent on Russian oil supplies which doesn't put them in the best of places.

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This article that I found is from "Bloomberg." It is about Russia reporting their first coronavirus case and restricting flights from China.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-31/russia-reports-first-coronavirus-cases-restricts-china-flights

Since the coronavirus has been an active issue throughout the world. I decided that I would use this article in my blog post. The place of where this takes effect is in the Siberian regions of Tyumen and Zabaikalsky Krai.

According to the article that I found, Russia has announced their first two cases of the coronavirus on its territory. Two nationals were diagnosed with the virus in the Siberian regions of Tyumen and Zabaikalsky Krai. Russia has canceled nearly 200 flights to China, but however maintain four routes from Moscow. Russia will close the border with Mongolia to Chinese citizens. The plans was to evacuate as many as 641 Russian citizens from China's Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province.

The first Russian confirmed illness from the coronavirus emerged as the government of the country of nearly 147 million people has tightened restrictions on travel to China. The deadly disease infected 10,000 people around the globe. On January 31, 2020, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin ordered a ban of people crossing the border of Russia with China.

Stable condition

The infected people, who arrived in Russia are in stable condition without fever and the illness is not at risk of spreading.