Arctic to be given special treatment starting in 2018

This announcement was made today by Russian Presidential Envoy to the North-West Federal District Nikolai Tsukanov, according to REGNUM Information Agency. Tsukanov noted that the most important socioeconomic indicators will be separately recorded for Arctic regions, including the level of wages and unemployment. He said that updated statistical data will be provided this year on production facilities, the introduction of new housing, agricultural development as well as how many Arctic region residents are satisfied with their standard of living.

“Such measures mean that attention to Russia’s Arctic zone will increase”, he said.

Russia’s Arctic zone is not an administrative-territorial division, but is treated separately as a special subject of government administration.

The Arctic zone includes the Murmansk Region, the Yamalo-Nenets, Nenets and Chukotka Autonomous Districts, Arkhangelsk, Severodvinsk, Novodvinsk, Novaya Zemlya, the Onezhsky, Mezensky and Primorsky districts of the Arkhangelsk Region, the cities of Vorkuta and Norilsk, and the Taimyrsky and Dolgano-Nenetsky Districts of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In the territory of Yakutia, the Allaikhovsky, Dolgano-Evenkiysky, Bulunsky, Nizhnekolymsky and Usl-Yansky Districts (Uluses) are considered parts of the Arctic.