A Colder Cold War: Why is Arctic Circle Becoming New Arena for US-Russia Standoff?

Faced with the loss of its status as a unipolar superpower, the US is seeking to open a new Cold War front in the arctic circle. Jeremy Kuzmarov, managing editor of CovertAction Magazine, said that was part of a scramble for resources buried beneath the ice.

The US is ramping up tensions in the arctic in a bid to seize the wealth of natural resources uncovered as the ice sheets retreat, a pundit has said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently announced that Washington would open a consulate in the Norwegian city of Tromso, its first diplomatic mission above the Arctic Circle.

Journalist Jeremy Kuzmarov told Sputnik that much had changed since the era of cooperation that began with the founding of the Arctic Council of the eight states surrounding the North Pole in 1996.

"That's been abandoned with this new Cold War and with this new diplomatic outpost. There are other signs that the US is moving in more to the Arctic, and the Russians see that as very provocative," he said.

The attraction of the Arctic as a geopolitical battleground is hidden beneath the ice, the commentator said.

"With climate change, the Arctic has tremendous mineral resources and wealth. And that's part of the scramble," Kuzmarov explained. "It's not just a potential base for military operations, but there's tremendous resources that could be exploited in the Arctic."

"We're seeing a new scramble to access those resources which are becoming more accessible," he continued. "All three countries, Russia, China and the United States are basically now competing with each other to to exploit that region more and more."

Recent moves by the US to further expand the NATO military bloc into Scandinavia — on the pretext of Russia's conflict with Ukraine — could be aimed at preventing Russia from exploiting the natural wealth of its long northern coastline and island chains.

"We see a very aggressive US policy that's epitomized by the incorporation of Sweden and Finland into NATO," Kuzmarov noted. "There's a closer relationship with Norway. Seymour Hersh detailed that Norway may have been a key player of the bombing of the Nord Stream two pipeline."

"They just fortified that relationship with this new Cold War. And is this really aggressive US strategy that we've discussed on the show? Targeting Russia, promoting regime change in China, isolate and weaken Russia.

"The Arctic strategy fits within that larger strategy, just of expanding NATO to Sweden and Finland, having an anti-Russian policy in cooperation with the Norwegians and projecting power in the Arctic and trying to dominate that region militarily," Kuzmarov argued.

The editor recalled how Biden's predecessor Donald Trump had offered to buy the artic island of Greenland from Denmark.

"The US will try and use Greenland as a platform just like they would like use the Arctic and using Norway or in Sweden," Kuzmarov said, pointing out that the US already has military bases on the glacial island. "The sun never set on the British Empire, and it never sets in the American empire."

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