Russian tankers that would normally carry oil to European customers are instead being rerouted through the Arctic to China.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    It doesn’t work during most of the year, though, unless you have an icebreaker and that’s hella expensive.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      The Russians do have the most bad ass icebreakers in the world. Nuclear reactor powered, absurdly powerful, able to crush through just ridiculously thick ice. They’ve only got one or two and as far as I know there’s nothing else like them in the world.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        That sounds right. They have some cool stuff up there (Murmansk is on the list of places I might one day retire to), just probably not enough to replace warm-water shipping at a similar price point.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        That will definitely help, and Putin has stated he’s excited about it. I’m not actually sure how long it will be until we have ice-free winters up there as well.