Russia to have 13 heavy icebreakers by 2035 - Putin
ST. PETERSBURG. April 9 (Interfax) - Russia's Arctic fleet will number at least 13 heavy icebreakers, including nine nuclear-powered ones, by 2035, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the plenary session of the International Arctic Forum on Tuesday.
"Three new nuclear-powered icebreakers are being built in St. Petersburg right now: the Arktika, the Sibir, and the Ural. Russia's Arctic fleet will number at least 13 heavy line icebreakers, including nine nuclear-powered ones, by 2035," Putin said.
Russia will continue to update its icebreaking fleet, he said.
Putin invited foreign partners to invest in the construction of port hubs at the endpoints of the Northern Sea Route. "I'm talking about Murmansk and the port infrastructure in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky," Putin said.
Russia's authorities plan to modernize harbors along the Arctic coast, including "the possible organization of river-sea transportation," he said.
The volume of transportation along the Northern Sea Route reached 20 million tonnes in 2017, which is three times more than the Soviet record dating to 1987, when the USSR transported 6.5 million tonnes of cargo along this route, Putin said.