Russia is renowned for its vast land area, reaching 17 million square kilometers, establishing its position as the world's largest country by landmass.
Its uniqueness lies in its adjacency to the Arctic Ocean in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the west, and extending to the Pacific Ocean in the east, spanning three maritime regions.
This makes Russia a transoceanic power, with over 7 million square kilometers of maritime territory and a coastline stretching over 37,000 kilometers.
Overall, Russia's territorial area totals 24 million square kilometers, occupying 4.7% of the Earth's surface, undoubtedly making it a leader on a global scale.
However, despite this, Russia faces some challenges, one of which is the lack of high-quality seaports.
Most of Russia's territory lies between the latitudes of 40° to 80° north, belonging to the mid to high latitude regions, with approximately 6 million square kilometers within the Arctic Circle.
These areas have a subarctic climate, with even the northern coastal regions experiencing low average temperatures in summer, often below zero degrees Celsius.
Therefore, despite having a long coastline, most ports in Russia are restricted by ice, rarely remaining ice-free throughout the year.
Currently, Russia is considered to have only four ice-free ports: St. Petersburg on the Baltic Sea coast in the west, Sevastopol on the Black Sea coast in the south, Murmansk on the Arctic Ocean coast in the north, and Vladivostok on the Pacific coast in the east.
However, each of these ports has its own set of challenges.
St. Petersburg, despite being Russia's second-largest city with a strong economic base, is not an ice-free port.
The Gulf of Finland where it is located has minimal influence from warm currents, resulting in low salinity and a freezing period of over four months in winter.
Additionally, St. Petersburg faces westwards, and its access to the only route to the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, the Skagerrak Strait, is controlled by Denmark and Sweden, both NATO members, severely limiting Russia's activities.
Sevastopol, located in the south, is a relatively good ice-free port, serving as both an industrial and military port, and was the base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
However, the Black Sea is a closed inland sea with limited area, and its outlet—the Turkish Straits—is controlled by other countries, constraining Sevastopol's operations, sometimes even blockading it, resulting in a "lake port" situation.
Murmansk, situated in the north, is one of Russia's best ports.
Despite being within the Arctic Circle, it benefits from the influence of the North Atlantic Drift, maintaining water temperatures around 3 degrees Celsius year-round, thus remaining ice-free throughout the year, making it one of Russia's few ice-free ports.
However, Murmansk has a relatively small permanent population, is far from major cities like St.
Petersburg and Moscow, has limited hinterland and market, and is distant from international major shipping routes, resulting in its economic viability being much lower than its military value.
As for Vladivostok in the east, its port conditions are favorable, with wide bays capable of accommodating more vessels and average depths ranging from 20 to 30 meters, suitable for docking large ships of over 100,000 tons, making it a natural deep-water harbor.
However, Vladivostok is not a truly ice-free port, experiencing a three-month ice period annually.
Furthermore, the population of Russia's Far East is only about 6 million, with a narrow economic base, making it difficult to support the operation of Vladivostok. Currently, its annual throughput is only 40 million tons, less than 20% of the southern Dalian Port.
From the current perspective, its military value far exceeds its commercial value.
Thus, it can be seen that high-latitude countries face numerous challenges.
Countries like Russia and Canada, where most of the territory is covered by ice and snow, face difficulties in development and lack high-quality ports, subject to various restrictions, far less favorable than the geographical conditions of mid-latitude countries like China and the United States.
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