All posts tagged: Arctic

Alexei Navalny, Don’t Worry About Me, Putin Critic Navalny’s Last Weeks In An Arctic Jail

Published by Webster

Alexei Navalny regularly ridiculed prison routines. (File) Moscow: Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, spent his final weeks in a penal colony above the Arctic Circle. His 19-year prison sentence was widely condemned by rights groups and in the West as punishment for daring to cross President Vladimir Putin. Through messages passed through his lawyers, he posted regularly on social media in a characteristically optimistic and light-hearted tone. Here is what Navalny’s final weeks looked like, in his own words: ‘Ho-ho-ho’  On December 26, Navalny posted his first message from his new Arctic prison colony, having disappeared for weeks after being moved from his former prison closer to Moscow. The icy IK-3 prison colony in the Siberian region of Yamal-Nenets, some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) from his native Moscow, would be where he spent his final few weeks. “I am your new grandfather Frost,” Navalny said, in his usual tongue-in-cheek manner. “I have a tulup, an ushanka and I will have valenki soon,” he said, referring to traditional furry Russian winter coats, hats and …

Back from Arctic winter voyage, scientists ‘happy to see Sun’ again | Bangalore News

Published by Parlour News

“The one thing I have suddenly learnt to value is sunlight. India has it in plenty, and thank God for that,” said Girish, a senior research scientist at Raman Research Institute in Bengaluru, who has just returned from the Arctic. Girish was part of the four-member scientific team that became the first set of researchers from India to spend a winter carrying out scientific studies in the world’s northernmost habitation. India has a permanent research station called Himadri, in Ny-Ålesund in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the Arctic region since 2008, but it used to remain uninhabited during winter because of extremely hostile weather conditions. The place is barely 1,200 km from the North Pole. This year, however, India decided to make the station operational throughout the year, and the first winter team, which included Girish, went there in December. India is only the fourth country in the world, after Germany, Italy and Norway, to have a year-round scientific presence in the Arctic region. “In our part of the world, there is a natural …

Kiren Rijiju Flags off India’s Maiden Winter Science Expedition to Arctic

Published by Webster

Last Updated: December 18, 2023, 13:45 IST Union Minister of Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju. (Image: PTI) He said India will now have a year-long presence at the research station in the Arctic region, as it has in the Antarctic near the South Pole Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday flagged off India’s first-ever winter science expedition to the Arctic region, in a bid to maintain year-long presence at the Himadri research station in Svalbard in Norway. A team of four scientists will embark on the journey on Tuesday to India’s research station in the NyAlesud town on the Brogger peninsula where research institutes from 10 countries have laboratories. Ny-Alesund is the world’s northernmost settlement, situated at 79 degrees north latitude in the north-western region of Spitsbergen, Svalbard. “In this maiden winter expedition, our scientists are poised to unravel further mysteries and push the boundaries of scientific knowledge about our ’Climate & Planet’,” Rijiju said. Earth Sciences Secretary M Ravichandran, National Centre for Polar Ocean Research Director Thamban Meloth and India Meteorological Department Director General …