On June 22–25, Murmansk will host the second, ‘The Arctic: Breaking the Ice’ national forum and festival. The participants will discuss the creation of a comfortable urban environment, the development of Arctic tourism, the use of modern technologies in the Arctic and other topics as part of Russia’s Arctic Council chairmanship in 2021-2023. The chairmanship event operator is Roscongress.

The participants in the business program will also discuss developing the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and the system for environmental monitoring in NSR waters, the functional aspects of specially protected nature areas and the “general clean-up” of the Arctic. In addition, the program includes brainstorming sessions with volunteers, following which reports will be presented to experts and the heads of related departments.

Volunteers will take part in the Arctic night clean-up in the polar village of Abram-Mys and the recovery of a sunken ship. They will also attend workshops from the Russian Emergencies Ministry dedicated to mountaineering, first aid in road accidents and open water assistance, as well as diving and survival in the natural environment. Volunteers will be able to test themselves during the popular team sports game, Clean Arctic Heroes Race.

The cultural part of the program includes the Victory Train mobile museum and the Lenin Nuclear Icebreaker exhibition center, a viewing of the film Nuremberg, and a meeting with the cast and crew, as well as technical tours to Arctic enterprises, such as Atomflot, Lavna, a future transport hub for the Northern Sea Route, and the Siberian Coal Energy Company.

Volunteers of the Clean Arctic public project will be participants in the forum, and representatives of federal and regional authorities, legislative bodies, heads of the Russian Arctic constituent entities, as well as experts from environmental organizations will be included among the speakers.

The second forum has been organized by the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic with support from the NGO Clean Arctic.

The first ‘The Arctic: Breaking the Ice’ national forum and festival was held on August 16-18, 2022, in the city of Usinsk, Komi Republic. The forum was attended by volunteers from all regions of the Russian Federation.