Russia, in the increasingly aggravated international struggle for the oil and gas-rich Arctic, spares neither fantasy nor money: the British press writes with surprise about a unique project of a cryptoclimatic miracle city in ice for the military, intelligence agents and scientists
The British were amazed by the project of the polar miracle city "Umka", which will help Russia to conquer the Arctic
Its estimated cost is 4 billion pounds (6.4 billion dollars), the proposed location is Kotelny Island of the New Siberian Islands archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. This is about 1.5 thousand kilometers from the North Pole, writes The Daily Mail. The project of the city, named "Umka" after the polar bear cub from the popular Soviet cartoon, the publication specifies, was presented at the September International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk, organized by the Russian Geographical Society … Among others, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spoke at it, confirming the ambitious plans to conquer the Arctic.
Photo: dailymail.co.uk
The author of the project is Valery Rzhevsky, Honored Architect of the Russian Federation. According to his idea, the city will be something like a luxury cocoon: houses, scientific laboratories, parks and attractions, a water park, hotels and a temple will be located under a huge dome that can protect from external low temperatures. There will also be schools, kindergartens, recreation areas, a hospital and sports facilities.
The city will be equipped with a special controlled climate system, which will be created using space and other advanced technologies. In general, the city will partly resemble a space station, but it will be incomparably more comfortable and larger in area: 1.5 kilometers long and 800 meters wide.
Electricity will be generated by a floating nuclear power plant. Food will not have to be delivered from the mainland: by design, the city with fish and poultry farms, greenhouses and grain factories will be fully self-sufficient. And all types of waste will be processed at two plants.
“People who will live and work in this city should not feel like they are in a confined space with an aggressive Arctic environment around them,” Rzhevsky explains. On the contrary, the conditions in which these people find themselves will cause the envy of the inhabitants of even the most comfortable cities, the authors of the project hope.
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According to the architect, the city developed by him, in principle, can exist on any surface, even on the lunar surface if necessary. It is already considered as a strategically important Russian northern outpost, although there is no exact time for the start of construction, the newspaper said.
Photo: dailymail.co.uk
British journalists write that Russia is annoying with its vigorous actions in this direction other countries that claim to the Arctic shelf, primarily the USA, Canada and Norway. Russia has clearly indicated its interest in the development of this territory by an expedition in August 2007 of the polar explorer Artur Chilingarov to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Then the researchers planted a titanium capsule with a Russian flag on the ocean floor, which provoked an international scandal.
In total, more than 20 countries claim access to the region's wealth. According to experts, the Arctic contains about a quarter of all offshore hydrocarbon reserves in the world. It is believed that up to 30% of all undeveloped gas and 13% of oil deposits are concentrated there, as well as deposits of gold, silver, ore and coal.
"Umka" ("Umky")
To be fair, it should be noted that the project of the new city was named “Umka”, most likely, not because of the love of its creators for the cartoon of the same name, shot by the Soyuzmultfilm studio in 1969.
The problem is that the Daily Mail reporters, naturally, do not know the language of one of Russia's favorite northern peoples - the Chukchi.
And in Chukchi “umka” is “polar bear” (or rather, “umky” with an accent on the second syllable). And the polar bear is an unconditional symbol of the Arctic, which is also listed in the Red Book.