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Guns are not quite silent in the devastated Donbass, and Putin鈥檚 order to withdraw troops from the border area is no different from his several prior zigzags in manipulating this conflict, so that are taking place. What is happening in this pause, is the new spike in Russian military activities in the Arctic. A new system of is under development, naval and air are conducted non-stop, and work on constructing new bases (mostly in the place of long-abandoned garrisons) is given . Plans for deploying squadrons of tactical aviation in these bases might make some strategic sense, but the intention to build in the Yamal peninsular (where Gazprom has a no small corporate army) is mind-boggling. There is for such a grouping in the High North, which in the recent Russian discourse was defined as 鈥渢erritory of dialogue鈥� or 鈥渮one of peace and cooperation鈥�. A very different discourse is now prevalent, and Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Security Council and one of Putin鈥檚 reliable lieutenants, took it to a new level of anti-Western hostility in a . He did not mention the Arctic specifically (though this is one of his pet topics) but his point that Ukraine was just a pretext and an instrument for executing the US plan for reviving the strategy of containment centered on Russia is informative, as is his reference (yet again) to the alleged statement by Madeleine Albright on Russia鈥檚 inability to develop the territories and resources under its control ( was disproved many times). In this context, the commitment to address the environmental problems in Russian Arctic looks dubious, but the plans for are worrisome indeed. may look like a political cartoon, but it is in fact a part of the exhibition in Moscow marking Putin鈥檚 birthday, and the grasp on the Arctic by his right hand appears rigid, even if the plans for submitting the long-promised claim to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UN CLCS) is apparently .