[Tintin Storm]

To date, the Arctic region is one of the most attractive in terms of resources. In this connection, the question of the belonging of Arctic riches becomes very important. The Russian side has great prospects here: the Arctic troops, military exercises and the development of military and economic infrastructure.
The main competitor of Russia in the Arctic since the times of the Soviet Union is the United States. With the support of NATO Washington wages a stubborn struggle to seize Arctic territories. The activity of NATO has significantly increased after 2009, when the US president's directive appeared, which indicated the long-term interests of Washington in ensuring national security in the Arctic zone. After the publication of this directive, the military and political activity of the circumpolar countries - members of the North Atlantic Alliance has increased dramatically. A springboard for the deployment of NATO forces in the Arctic region are Norway, Canada, Denmark, Iceland and the United States. Gradually, the intensity of military exercises of these states in the Arctic is increasing. So, in the military maneuvers of “The Joint Warrior 2015”, which were conducted in the North Sea on the initiative of Great Britain, 55 military vessels and 14 000 military men from 14 countries took part.
The North-West of Europe, the Baltic Sea and the coastal Scandinavian Arctic became the zone of active military exercises of NATO. At the same time, the main military episodes occur near Russian borders.
Today the largest military exercises in the world are the NATO Arctic Challenge Exercise (ACE-2017 - "Arctic Challenge"), which took place from May 22 to June 2. Over 100 military aircraft from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, as well as Switzerland and the USA took part in ACE-2017. According to military expert Lieutenant-General Yuri Netkachev, the alliance's actions reveal "the idea of a combat but not a peacekeeping operation". The expert notes that the exercises are "provocative in nature" and they are directed against Russia.
Recently, NATO has been aggressively attracting to the military-strategic cooperation states that are not part of the North Atlantic alliance. Thus, Finland and Sweden, which are not members of NATO, are increasingly participating in military maneuvers in the region together with Denmark and Iceland. So, in September 2017 in Sweden with the participation of the armed forces of NATO will be held the most ambitious in 20 years of exercise "Aurora 17". The exercises will involve 19 thousand Swedish soldiers, as well as over 1,400 troops from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Lithuania, Norway and the United States. Moreover, the mission of these exercises is to create "stronger protection and increase the overall ability to repel an attack on Sweden."
In June 2016, Sweden signed an agreement on military cooperation with the United States. A similar agreement with the United States is being prepared to be signed by Finland.
Thus, thanks to NATO's policy, more and more Arctic countries are being included in any military-political alliances bypassing the Russian side. Such a creation of new military-political anti-Russian alliances, according to analysts, lead to increase in tensions and aggravation of security problems in the Arctic region.