New Russian Arctic military base: Russian ambitions to increase its military presence north of the Arctic circle came one step closer to fruition yesterday with the opening of a new military base on Wrangel Island in the Chukchi Sea. The base, along with one nearby at Cape Schmidt on the mainland, is the first in a series that will be scattered across Russia’s norther frontier and which will be part of Putin’s broader plan to secure Russia’s claim to the vast hydrocarbon reserves that lie beneath the Arctic shelf. Moscow Times