The European Union summit which took place on May 22 is a landmark event and an important step further after the adoption of the 2009 Third Energy Package… The traditionally anti-Russian energy policy of the European Union gets a new content. Nothing proves that the European Union wants to lower the dependence on energy imports as such. For instance, at the very same time the possibility of gas imports from Ukraine in distant future is part of the agenda. What lies at the bottom of the European Union’s stance is finding the ways to become independent from Russia…

New technologies and climate change have significantly raised the profile of Arctic resources for the global economy. According to the Economist, the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Many experts quoting Alfred T. Mahan’s work «The Influence of Sea Power Upon History” agree that seaborne commerce in the High North will become an important geopolitical factor over the next several decades. Prospects of political dominance in the Arctic provoke heated debates sometimes overdramatised by the media. But realpolitik dictates that all states concerned should rely on existing legal and institutional framework enabling peaceful cooperation…