For Russia, the far north has been a zone of economic development, planned settlement, and geopolitical competition since Soviet times. It not only holds by far the largest territory of the eight Arctic nations – almost 2 million square miles of Russian land is in the Arctic. It also leads the others in terms of infrastructure, population, economic development, and military presence. Russia is currently preparing long-range plans to turn its frigid Arctic zone into a booming frontier of trade, resource extraction, and, some hope, international cooperation.