Online published on 6 September, 2018.
The Russian state, the largest in the world, founded by Vikings remained landlocked for centuries. Its rulers gradually gained access to the Baltic and Black seas and during the eighteenth century established a strong naval, commercial and military presence in the oceans. The Soviet Union developed a huge war fleet and opened an arctic sea-lane along the northern coast. Today, Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Putin is again an Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean maritime power. It has turned its Arctic exclusive economic zone into a major source of natural gas and an artery for trade between Europe and East Asia.
