Overview
- Rosatom said shipments on the Arctic Northern Sea Route in 2026 are 15% above last year, with more transit permit requests and voyages.
- The state operator added that it is building onshore support for the route, including terminals, transshipment points, power for northern projects, and maintained sea channels.
- The International Maritime Organization’s chief warned in a forum address that traffic on the Northern Sea Route and the Trans-Arctic Corridor could grow and urged stronger protection of Arctic waters.
- In a separate rollout, President Vladimir Putin opened new transport projects by videolink, including a Blagoveshchensk airport terminal, the first stage of the Bagayevsky hydro system on the Don River, and the next phase of St. Petersburg’s Latitudinal High-Speed Motorway.
- Russia also launched driverless freight service on the M12 Vostok motorway to form an autonomous St. Petersburg–Kazan corridor, citing 13 million accident-free kilometers by self-driving vehicles and plans to extend smart transport to other federal highways.