New rules and tariffs for Northern Sea Route

摘要

the Northern Sea Route(NSR)through Russia’s Arctic waters became effective on 19 April on the order of the federal tariff service(FST),which regulates the tariffs charged by Russia’s natural monopolies. State-run Atomflot,which operates the nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet,will now be responsible for calculating the cost of escorting vessels on the NSR,taking into account the season,the ice-class rating and size of the vessel escorted, and the trip distance.The NSR has been divided into seven zones,with firms using nuclear-powered icebreaker escorts only paying for the actual distance that the icebreaker travels on each trip.Winter and spring tariffs will differ from summer and autumn tariffs.Previously,tariffs were applied on a per ton basis for domestic and export and transit ship-ments,or per ton of displacement for vessels in ballast.