Alexey Chekunkov, a candidate for the position of the minister for the Development of the Russian Far East, said that planning centred around the Northern Sea Route (NSR) should be a core aspect of the development of the Arctic Zone in the Russian Federation.

'The state plan is the priority in the development of the Arctic. We need to plan and calculate the development of the Arctic. Another aspect is geostrategic. Planning should be centred around the concept of the NSR,' said Chekunkov at a meeting of the State Duma Committee on Regional Policy and Problems of the North and the Far East.

He also described the digital state plan created by the Far East Development Fund and the Faculty of Economics at Moscow State University. This programme considers 'the entire relationship of economic, transport, infrastructure and social processes from Murmansk to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy' until 2035.

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