WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 2019

Volume 6, Number 105

EIR Daily Alert Service

P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390

• A New Human Pardigm Requires U.S.-China Cooperation!
• Chinese President Xi’s Schedule Filled With Overseas Summits and Diplomacy in June
• Eurasian Economic Union Summit Opens in Kazakhstan’s Capital
• Trump Calls Out U.K., Australia, Ukraine, in Identifying What Must Be Made Public in Declassification
• Rep. Liz Cheney Charges, FBI Agents Investigating Trump Sounded ‘Like a Coup’
• State Department Nixes Oslo Talks on Venezuela, Insists They Can Discuss Only Maduro’s Ouster
• Storms, Heavy Rains Bring More Mississippi Basin Flooding, Tornadoes, Hail in Ohio and Nebraska
• Iran’s Zarif in Baghdad, Responds to Trump’s Remarks in Japan, Proffers Regional Non-Aggression Pact
• Intense Iranian Diplomacy ‘Seeks Balanced and Constructive Relations’ in Persian Gulf
• Lavrov and Taliban Demand Foreign Troops Exit Afghanistan
• Rosatom To Build Two More Nuclear-Powered Icebreakers

EDITORIAL

A New Human Paradigm Requires U.S.-China Cooperation!

May 28 (EIRNS)—Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche issued a clarion call today for Lyndon LaRouche’s movement in the United States to take the lead in mobilizing a force sufficiently powerful to crush the Anglophile American Establishment’s drive to provoke a confrontation between the United States and China.

People must be awakened: “We cannot have the world separated into two blocs, going back into a Cold War period, because this would be the absolute collapse of the world economy, and have devastating military and strategic consequences,” she warned.

The American people must ask who, or rather what, is setting the United States up for this potential disaster?

The same British Empire-run “Intelligence Community” which vilified, prosecuted, and jailed American statesman Lyndon H. LaRouche in its desperation to suppress his ideas; the same U.K.-U.S. “Intelligence Community” now finally under official investigation for its attempted coup against the duly-elected President of the United States, Donald Trump. This is the police-state apparatus which is mobilizing, in the words of FBI Director Christopher Wray, a “whole of society” effort to convince the American people that China is now the “generational threat” which must be contained and defeated.

The very idea that a nation of 1.4 billion people committed to the development of themselves, and now the rest of the world through the Belt and Road Initiative, can be “contained,” is arrogant self-delusion. Yet these enemies of the United States Republic are pumping out an onslaught of lies on how China’s success in lifting its people—one-fifth of the human race!—out of backwardness and poverty is a threat to America’s “way of life.”

Not all Americans have been suckered into that lie. That was shown in last week’s “U.S.-China Governors’ Collaboration Summit” in Kentucky, where 400 American and Chinese officials and businessmen spoke of how Chinese and Americans have “the very same value system,” of working hard to provide better lives for their children.

But the war on China has not stopped. The declarations by U.S. government agencies that China is now an enemy, the wild actions to shut down Chinese telecom giant Huawei, and Robert Lighthizer’s and his allies’ determination to turn trade negotiations into a weapon to impose controls upon China’s domestic development, combined, has shaken China’s confidence that the United States can be a friend. Zepp-LaRouche reported from her discussions during her just-concluded 12-day trip to China, that there is huge disappointment among many in China over the collapse of what they had thought was a positive relationship, starting with President Xi Jinping’s visit with President Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago in April 2017, and they have come to the conclusion that, on the current path, the U.S. aim is to prevent the rise of China.

An adversarial relationship between the U.S. and China will kill the possibility of reaching the urgently required Four Power agreement proposed by Lyndon LaRouche, in which the U.S., Russia, China, and India join forces to lead humanity in replacing the British imperial system and its evil concept of Man as a beast, she warned.

Zepp-LaRouche called attention to a key paragraph in the May 27 editorial in Global Times, where the leading English-language daily in China wrote: “In a politically diverse U.S. society, there is no powerful force that opposes extreme policies against China. Although there are criticisms of the trade war, most of them analyze specific interests. They have no strategic rethinking of how to prevent escalation. U.S. suppression of China is still expanding.”

The LaRouche movement and the Schiller Institute “are very well known in China—actually, several people said that we are famous in China; Lyndon LaRouche is absolutely respected as one of the most profound thinkers in terms of economics,” she reported. “The better-informed people in China know what we are doing in the U.S. and Europe, but, they [Global Times] also say, ‘there is no powerful force…,’ a force which would be able to counter what they see clearly as the combination of the war party of the Democrats and the neo-cons in the Republican Party,” she stressed.

Therefore, she issued the call for the LaRouche forces to take the lead in the U.S. in refuting the anti-China propaganda, because it is not based on reality, and to use the ideas of Lyndon LaRouche to move the Trump Administration into the New Paradigm.

Zepp-LaRouche defined the New Paradigm in simple, beautiful terms, arguing that “the New Paradigm means, among other things, to think in terms of the kind of international relations which are adequate to the human species. You want the relations among nations to be like in a good family, where the uncle wants the nephew to become a genius; where the grandmother wants to have the granddaughter to be the best singer in the world; where the children want to have best possible old-age time for their parents and grandparents—in other words, where you want the best for the other nation, and you think how to bring forward the best potential of all nations in the world.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Chinese President Xi’s Schedule Filled with Overseas Summits and Diplomacy in June

May 28 (EIRNS)—China’s President Xi Jinping has a schedule of high-profile summits and meetings next month in Eurasia, and other Chinese leaders are very active in diplomacy as well. Most of these multinational occasions have been planned long ago, but South China Morning Post, in reporting on them, states that the Chinese government will be making a diplomatic offensive over the next few weeks, in reaction to the trade conflict and other tensions between the U.S. and China.

Over June 6-8 in Russia, Xi will address the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

June 13-14, Xi will visit Bishkek, the Kyrgyzstan capital, for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, where the leaders of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India, as well as observer nations, including Iran, will be meeting.

June 15-16, the Chinese President will join fellow national leaders attending the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. CICA, which comprises 27 member states internationally, was founded by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1992.

June 26-28, he will attend the G20 summit is Osaka, Japan, where President Xi could hold a meeting with President Donald Trump on the summit sidelines.

Over May 26-28, Vice-President Wang Qishan has been on a three-day visit to Pakistan before he heads to the Netherlands and Germany, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. He met May 26 with Pakistani President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad. Following talks between the delegations, they signed various bilateral agreements on agriculture, customs and disaster relief. The Pakistani officials said that the visit would expedite the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, one of the Belt and Road groundbreaking projects. On May 27 Wang went to Lahore, in Punjab province, Pakistan’s second-largest city, to meet officials and visit Chinese investment centers there, including the Haier-Ruba Economic Zone.

Eurasian Economic Union Summit Opens in Kazakhstan’s Capital

May 28 (EIRNS)—The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) summit opens today in the newly named Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana). Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived today for the session of the Supreme Council of the Eurasian Economic Union, and will take part in the main events that take place on May 29. The Supreme Council session will mark the fifth anniversary of EAEU, which comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and focus on the macroeconomic strategy for 2019-2020.

“Members of the Supreme Council will sum up the results of the EAEU work over five years and chart the tasks on expansion of cooperation in various fields, such as trade, economy, industry, finances, social politics,” the Kremlin press service said. “A draft joint statement of heads of EAEU member-states has been prepared for signing. The main guidelines for member-states’ macroeconomic strategy for 2019-2020, a wide range of other documents on liberalization of markets of goods and services, on cooperation in digital economy will also be approved.”

In addition to the heads of state of member countries, Moldovan President Igor Dodon will attend the summit as an observer state and Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon has been invited as an honorary guest, TASS reported.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Trump Calls Out U.K., Australia, Ukraine, in Identifying What Must Be Made Public in Declassification

May 28 (EIRNS)—On May 24, the day after President Donald Trump issued his directive that Attorney General Barr can declassify and release all documents connected to the origination of the Russia investigation, Trump himself answered reporters’ questions on why he did this, and specifically named as important, information regarding the U.K., Australia and Ukraine. Though his White House remarks are fully available on video, Trump’s revelations have been covered by only very few media. Here are the relevant excerpts, as transcribed by RealClearPolitics posted, with video, on May 24:

Question: Why should people trust the attorney general to select what is declassified? Even Robert Mueller expressed concerns about the way Barr handled his findings.

President DonaldTrump: The question is so false and so phony. Let me explain, the attorney general is one of the most respected people in this country. He has been for a long period of time. He’s going to look at a lot of documents. Some he might find interesting. Maybe he’ll find none interesting. But for over a year, people have asked me to declassify. What I’ve done is declassified everything. He can look. I hope he looks at the U.K. and I hope he looks at Australia and I hope he looks at Ukraine. I hope he looks at everything, because there was a hoax that was perpetrated on our country. It’s the greatest hoax—excuse me [as reporter tries to interrupt]. It’s the greatest hoax probably in the history of our country and somebody has to get to the bottom of it. We’ll see. For a long period of time, they wanted me to declassify and I did.

Question: What is it about? Is it about getting payback for the two years?

Trump: This is about finding out what happened. I won an election. I won it easily. 306-223. I won it pretty easily. This is all about what happened and when did it happen, because this was an attempted takedown of the President of the United States, and we have to find out, why did somebody write a text message—the two lovers—that if she loses, we have an insurance policy. An insurance policy to take down the President. We’re going to find out what happened and why it happened.

It’s not payback, I don’t care about payback. I think it’s important for our country to find out what happened.

Question: Are you worried the investigations are hurting your re-election chances?

Trump: I don’t know. My poll numbers are very good. You don’t like to report them, but I guess we have a 48 today. We have a 51. We have very good poll numbers considering. If you people would give straight news, I’d be at 70, maybe 75. You don’t give straight news. You give fake news. With fake news, I’m still winning the election. If you gave serious, good news the way you’re supposed to, I’d probably be at 70 or 75 based on the economy alone….

Question: On William Barr [inaudible].

Trump: I want somebody who will be fair. I think William Barr is the most respected men doing what he does in our whole country. I just want him to be fair. I don’t want him to be for me or anybody else. I just want him to be fair. That’s what he is, and we’re going to find out what this yields. I will tell you, declassifying—people have wanted me to do it for a long time. I think it was very important to do. Basically, what are we doing? We’re exposing everything. We’re being a word that you like, transparent. We’re being, ultimately we’re being transparent. That’s what it’s about. Again, this should never ever happen in our country again.

Rep. Liz Cheney Charges, FBI Agents Investigating Trump Sounded ‘Like a Coup’

May 28 (EIRNS)—Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), daughter of George W. Bush’s Vice-President Dick Cheney, told Martha Raddatz on ABC News’ “This Week” Sunday show May 26 that statements by FBI agents investigating President Donald Trump sounded “an awful lot like a coup, and it could well be treason.”

President Trump tweeted The Hill headline on her appearance out Monday morning, “Liz Cheney: Statements by agents investigating Trump ‘could well be treason,’ ” accompanied by the promo of their story: “Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said statements by FBI agents investigating President Trump sounded ‘a whole lot like a coup and it could well be treason.’ ”

On Sunday, Representative Cheney zeroed in on texts exchanged by FBI “lovebirds,” agent Peter Strzok and lawyer Lisa Page critical of Trump, which have launched a Republican effort to investigate potential bias in the Department of Justice against the President. Liz Cheney added that officials needed to get to the bottom of the roles of former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in the investigation as well.

“Think about the fact that we had people that are at the highest levels of our law enforcement in this nation saying that they were going to stop a duly elected President of the United States, saying they needed an insurance policy against him,” she said.

“That is something that simply cannot happen. We have to have confidence in our law enforcement, and the attorney general has got to get to the bottom of what happened, how it was that those people were allowed to misuse and abuse their power that way,” she told Raddatz.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a separate Sunday morning interview that the Trump Administration “already” knows there was a high level of corruption at the FBI, and that, “They leaked information. They lied. They were specifically working trying to take down the President, trying to hurt the President,” Sanders told NBC News’ “Meet The Press.”

“We’ll leave the final call up to the attorney general [William Barr] and he’ll get to the bottom of it.”

State Department Nixes Oslo Talks on Venezuela, Insists They Can Discuss Only Maduro’s Ouster

May 28 (EIRNS)—In a May 25 statement, the State Department arrogantly declared that any talks in Oslo between representatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition will be a waste of time, unless they focus on only one topic—Maduro’s ouster. “We hope the talks in Oslo will focus on that objective, and if they do, we hope progress will be possible,” the statement read.

Similar arrogance was on display today in Geneva, when Robert Wood, U.S. ambassador to the UN’s Conference on Disarmament, walked out because Venezuelan Ambassador Jorge Valero was chairing the meeting. Wood huffed and puffed that nothing legitimate could come out of the meeting as long as it were chaired by a “rogue state.” Some Ibero-American members of the so-called Lima Group also boycotted the meeting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov countered this high-handedness in a May 27 press conference with visiting Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla. Talks in Oslo, which will recommence this week, are positive and are what Russia has also advocated, he said, citing the example of the Montevideo Mechanism, created at the end of last year, which urged dialogue and non-intervention. Nicolas Maduro has always been willing to talk, Lavrov stated; not so with “interim” president Juan Guaidó, whom he described as a State Department puppet.

Rather than show respect for the 2014 declaration of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which proclaimed Ibero-America to be a “zone of peace and harmonious coexistence,” the U.S. is exercising the politics of “diktat and power politics” which have failed miserably, Lavrov commented. The U.S. administration, he said, is doing “everything it can to turn ideological differences between individual governments into a political and even a military confrontation.” In a separate statement, the Foreign Ministry “called on all states involved in the Venezuela situation to support the launch of the political process in the form of talks among the country’s major forces, refraining from issuing ultimata to Venezuela’s leadership.”

Loud statements by some members of the Venezuelan opposition, denouncing the Oslo talks, indicate there’s no unified stance on this, but someone in the leadership gave the okay for the talks to proceed. Venezuelanalysis.com news site reports that, unlike the first round of talks in mid-May, the current round was expected to involve face-to-face meetings.

Storms, Heavy Rains Bring More Mississippi Basin Flooding, Tornadoes, Hail in Ohio and Nebraska

May 28 (EIRNS)—Recent heavy rains in the Midwest have worsened the already severe flooding in the Missouri-Mississippi River systems. Storm patterns have also produced tornadoes in Oklahoma and Ohio over the past 36 hours, and last week in Missouri. The Dayton, Ohio area was hit hard: As of early this morning, 5 million people in Ohio were without electricity; 50,000 remain out as of 9:30 EDT this evening. A storm that raked a 300-mile pathway last night and today showed parts of Nebraska with up to four inches of hail stones.

The National Weather Service now forecasts that flooding on the mid-Mississippi River at St. Louis on June 4 will reach the second-highest level in modern times, at 14 feet above flood stage, exceeded only by the Great Flood of 1993. Two Mississippi River bridges are now closed because of treacherous high water. The Champ Clark Bridge at Louisiana, Missouri shut last night; the Quincy Memorial Bridge closed early this morning at the town of Quincy.

Navigation is extremely disrupted, affecting fertilizer and chemical shipments going north, and grain going south. On May 23, the U.S. Coast Guard announced that the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers were closed near St. Louis to “all vessel traffic due to extremely high water levels and fast-moving currents.” This is the second time this year. Downriver, in Louisiana, the Army Corps of Engineers opened the big Bonnet Carré Spillway, a standby structure (concrete weir and six-mile-long channel), seldom used since it opened in 1931, but activated twice already this year. It channels Mississippi overflow into Lake Pontchartrain, and thence to the Gulf of Mexico.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson activated the National Guard yesterday. In Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly declared a state of disaster in 49 of the 105 counties, and is requesting Federal aid for shelters and emergency logistics.

On May 24, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson declared his whole state a disaster area, as the Arkansas River and tributaries overflowed. Two barges broke their moorings; one rammed into a dam. This afternoon, two levees were topped, according to the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. The power company Entergy is systematically “de-energizing” parts of its grid, in anticipation of electrical equipment being submerged in the floodwaters.

In Oklahoma, the Arkansas River flooding is putting Tulsa in under extreme threat. Today, a military helicopter is dropping giant sandbags on a levee in Tulsa, to keep it from breaching. There are evacuations and shelters set up at points throughout the river systems.

This kind of flooding is automatically an agriculture disaster. All the farm states from the Dakotas south to Louisiana are affected. As of Memorial Day, evacuations were underway in parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. This is the heart of the farm belt. Iowa and Illinois alone account for 25% of all U.S. soybean output. There are extreme delays in planting and in the emergence of what has been seeded.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Iran’s Zarif in Baghdad, Responds to Trump’s Remarks in Japan, Proffers Regional Non-Aggression Pact

May 28 (EIRNS)—Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to President Donald Trump’s comments in Japan yesterday that the U.S. does not want regime change in Iran, by posting on Twitter: “Actions—not words—will show whether or not that’s Donald Trump’s intent.”

Zarif also reiterated that Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons. “Ayatollah Khamenei long ago said we’re not seeking nuclear weapons—by issuing a fatwa banning them,” Zarif stated.

Zarif further attacked what he called the “B Team,” referring to U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) who are the motivators of “economic terrorism” against Iran. “The B Team’s economic terrorism is hurting the Iranian people and causing tension in the region,” Zarif remarked.

Zarif was in Iraq on May 26, where he proposed a “regional non-aggression pact” during talks with senior Iraqi officials, including President Barham Salih, Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi and political leaders such as Ammar al-Hakim, leader of the Iraqi National Wisdom Movement. “In Iraq, where I’ve held substantive and productive meetings with the President, PM, Speaker, FM & leadership of two parliamentary coalitions. Proposed regional non-aggression pact: #NeighborsFirst,” Zarif tweeted on May 26.

During a joint press conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohamad Ali Alhakim, Zarif said that Iran sought the best of relations with the Persian Gulf littoral countries and would welcome any proposals for dialogue and de-escalation toward that end.

For his part Alhakim said Iraq is in contact with all regional countries to defuse tensions between Iran and the United States.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking from Moscow yesterday, endorsed Zarif’s non-aggression proposal, saying that such a pact could serve as the first step to reduce tensions in the region. “Perhaps, agreeing not to attack one another is the first step toward reducing tensions. We would consider such an agreement as a proper one,” Lavrov said at a press conference after his talks with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla, reported Sputnik.

He said the proposal was in line with a “well-known and old” Russian initiative to create a “security concept” for the Persian Gulf, which would include Arab states and Iran. “I believe that anyway we should move on toward creating such a concept, such a security system, and we should start with easy steps, such as being transparent about military matters, inviting each other to take part in drills and elaborating other measures aimed at boosting trust,” Sputnik quoted Lavrov as saying.

Lavrov said that he has discussed this concept in some detail with the Cooperation Council for Arab States at the foreign minister level, and with the Iranian government. The Arab states, he said, “have not yet arrived at a common position.”

Lavrov further said that the guarantors for a new regional security system could be the Arab League, the European Union, the United Nations, and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Intense Iranian Diplomacy ‘Seeks Balanced and Constructive Relations’ in Persian Gulf

May 28 (EIRNS)—Following the visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Baghdad, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi embarked on a tour of the Persian Gulf region, with stops already in Oman and Kuwait. In Muscat, Oman on May 26, Araqchi rejected any direct or indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. According to Tasnim, he warned against the destructive policies adopted by the U.S. and some of its allies in the region.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to establish balanced and constructive relations with all Persian Gulf region’s states on the basis of mutual respect and interests,” the visiting Iranian diplomat stated. Iran does not want increasing tensions in the region, Araqchi stressed, and declaring that peace and stability would be guaranteed in the region in case the sanctions are ended and all regional countries benefit from the interests of economic collaboration. “Imposing sanctions against Iran is a failed experiment that has been tried many times before,” he stated.

In Kuwait, on May 27, Araqchi assured his hosts that Tehran pursues the policy of establishing peace and stability in the Persian Gulf region, stressing the necessity for dialogue among regional countries, reports Tasnim. Iran’s principled policy is based on establishing peace and stability in the important Persian Gulf region, Araqchi said in a meeting with Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah in Kuwait City. He denounced U.S. unilateral sanctions policy as having “endangered the security of the entire region, and regional countries should remain vigilant in the face of such a threat.”

Iran is pursuing a “responsible” approach to regional developments, Araqchi continued, and that “Dialogue and consultation with regional countries are among the principles of our country’s foreign policy.” He also voiced Iran’s readiness to establish regional mechanisms with a view to engaging in dialogue.

Araqchi concludes his tour in Qatar today.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is trying to organize “emergency” confabs in Mecca this week, of all three major Arab/Islamic international organizations, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Countries, of which Iran is also a member. AFP claims that the three summits would allow Riyadh the chance to present unified Islamic, Arab and Gulf fronts against its arch-rival Tehran. Hussein Ibish, a scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told AFP that Riyadh’s aim was “to consolidate Arab and Muslim support, anticipating intensified confrontation or diplomacy.” What is not clear, however, is how many countries will actually take part in the emergency summits, in part because not all Arab states, Qatar being a prominent example, necessarily agree with the Saudi position on Iran’s role in the region.

Lavrov and Taliban Demand Foreign Troops Exit Afghanistan

May 28 (EIRNS)—At a gathering in Moscow today, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Russian-Afghan relations, Taliban representatives described the U.S.-led foreign troop presence in Afghanistan as an obstacle to peace and demanded that it be ended. “The Islamic Emirate [Taliban] is truly committed to peace but the first step is to remove obstacles in the way of peace, meaning the occupation of Afghanistan must come to an end,” said Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the political deputy of the Taliban.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also urged the withdrawal of foreign forces. “The only possible path to a settlement is through achieving peace by political and diplomatic means,” he said. “We are in favor of a full pull-out of foreign forces from the country. We call on all Afghan sides to start talks involving a broad range of public and political forces as soon as possible. In this context, we confirm our commitment to preserving a single and indivisible Afghan state, where numerous ethnic groups coexist in peace and harmony.”

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Rosatom To Build Two More Nuclear-Powered Icebreakers

May 28 (EIRNS)—The third of Russia’s Project 22220 class of nuclear-powered icebreakers, the Ural, was floated out of the Baltic Shipyards in St. Petersburg on May 25. The other two of this class are the Arktika and the Sibir which are undergoing their final phase of construction at the Baltic Shipyards. All three vessels are to be put into operation by 2022.

Rosatom, the state nuclear power company, will build two more Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreakers, according to TASS. Russia so far is the only nation to build nuclear-powered icebreakers. “The treaty to build two more Project 22220 icebreakers will be signed by late August. Currently, we are preparing an open tender to build the new icebreakers,” a Rosatom source told TASS yesterday.

These fourth and fifth icebreakers of the Project 22220 class are estimated to cost about 100 billion rubles (about $1.55 billion). The Project 22220 class are the world’s largest and most powerful icebreakers and can break ice up to 3 meters thick. Russia currently operates eight icebreakers on the Northern Sea Route, of which four are nuclear powered and four are diesel-electric.

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