Murmansk's silver lining: Arctic city expects renaissance with ice melt

The largest city in the Russian Arctic expects global warming to change its trading fortunes with the revival of the northern sea routeIt's noon in Murmansk, but the sky is dark. Chunky silhouettes can just be made out scurrying along Lenin Street, swaddled in furs. This is a polar night, and it will be more than a month before anyone here sees the sun again.When the Soviet Union collapsed, this city - by far the world's largest settlement within the Arctic Circle - went into steep decline, its population tumbling from nearly half a million to barely 300,000. Continue reading...