North Pole 2020 expedition to get 1.7 billion rubles in funding
© RIA Novosti. Aleksey Danichev

North Pole 2020 expedition to get 1.7 billion rubles in funding

The Russian government will spend a total of 1.7 billion rubles on the North Pole 2020 scientific expedition, Chair of the State Duma Committee on Ecology and Environmental Protection Vladimir Burmatov told participants in the 9th International Forum, The Arctic: Today and the Future.

"We have teamed up with the Association of Polar Explorers and its president, Arthur Chilingarov, and have managed to include a clause on financing the North Pole 2020 scientific expedition in the draft federal budget," Burmatov noted.

Expedition members will sail on the icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn, which displaces 26,000 metric tons and which will freeze fast among sea-ice formations, and they will conduct over 40 research projects in high latitudes.

The expedition will involve over 250 Russian scientists from 28 institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, eight universities, two Rosatom institutes, three Roshydromet institutes, three Healthcare Ministry institutes and five companies manufacturing scientific equipment.

The expedition's research program will help to create a solid foundation for the long-term sustainable development of the Arctic and to guarantee Russia's geo-economic interests in the region.