Is it a desperate attempt to keep trade routes open amid G7 sanctions or simply a consequence of climate change?

Russian authorities sent one non-ice class capesize bulker and two non-ice class suezmax tankers through the Northern Sea Route (NSR) earlier this month.

NSR operator Rosatom announced on 11 September that two of its nuclear-powered ice breakers assisted the 169,200-dwt bulker Gingo (built 2000) to make the Arctic passage in 13 days, travelling east from Murmansk.