Russia has the longest borders in the Arctic zone. The slogan "Who owns the Arctic, owns the world!" explains the essence of the fierce struggle for strategic dominance over the northern latitudes with its rich reserves of hydrocarbons, polymetals, inexhaustible fishery resources. The uniform offensive of the United States, Canada, and Scandinavia in the North is caused by the desire to try to play a major role in the entire northern territory, and this becomes a question of Russia's security.
The government of the Russian Federation has always attached great importance to the development of the northern territories of our country. Over the past period, as a result of the purposeful work of our people in difficult natural and climatic conditions of the North and the specific geological and hydrogeological conditions of the permafrost, the Northern Sea Route was created and successfully operates; large deposits of minerals, diamonds, oil, and gas are being discovered and developed; the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) was built.
A specific feature of the northern lands is the permafrost, which makes these lands very problematic in terms of land development, construction, and settlement.
The natural phenomenon that is permafrost extends over 22.8 million km2 of the globe, occupying about 24% of the land in the Northern Hemisphere. Permafrost exists in the Arctic, Subarctic, and high-mountain areas with cold climates (Fig. 1). Fig. 1a shows the zoning schemes for areas with permafrost in the northern hemisphere, where the following are identified: in purple - permafrost area, in blue zones of soil freezing for more than 15 days per year, in red - for less than 15 days per year. There are 10.5 million km2 of permafrost in Russia. In the north, it is a massif up to 800 meters thick; southward, the frozen layer shrinks with a gradual increase in fragments of unfrozen soil. Gradually, the permafrost is disappearing. Figure 1b shows the zones of ubiquitous, local, and sectional permafrost on a map of Russia. Permafrost depths ranging from 500 to 25 m are shown.