Kremlin moves Arctic regions politically closer to Moscow | Alaska Dispatch
▻http://www.adn.com/article/20141124/kremlin-moves-arctic-closer-moscow
Governors’ elections will be abolished and the governance of Arctic territories is likely to be transferred to a new Ministry of the Arctic.
Following the establishment of a Ministry of the Crimea, the Ministry of the North Caucasus and the Ministry of the Far East, the turn appears to have come to the North.
A representative of the Russian presidential administration confirms that the establishment of the ministry now is on the agenda. "This is a strategically important region for the country, [and] a structure which can centralize all operations is absolutely needed,” the representative told the newspaper Kommersant.