Russia Opened the Sea Route from Europe to Asia

Russia opened a shortcut sea route on 26 August 2010 from Europe to Asia across the Arctic Ocean when its sea vessel Baltica became the first vessel to travel through the Arctic Ocean. It successfully went round the Arctic coastline of Russia with a load of gas for China. The journey confirmed that the route was both safe and economically feasible. Two nuclear ice breakers cleared the way for the Baltica through its route of Arctic Ocean. The weight of Baltica is 114,564 tonne.

The Arctic sea route is considered to be twice faster than the Suez Canal route and also cheaper. The length of the sea-route from the Russian port of Murmansk to Shanghai is 10600 km long while the length of Suez Canal is 17700 km. Shippers will save a million dollars per tanker in fuel costs alone. The shorter route will save a lot of fuel costs to sea vessels travelling through this route.

The new Arctic sea route will open the advantageous trade route between Russia and Asia. Russia is the only country at present to have a fleet of nuclear ice breakers.