Two close companions with decades-long cooperation on Tuesday sat down for a talk in the Kremlin and it was the Arctic that was on top of their agenda. Igor Sechin has worked with Vladimir Putin since the 1990s and is considered among the most powerful and influential men in the country.

This time, it was the Vostok Oil project that was the key issue of discussion.

Tundra oil

Igor Sechin and his state-owned oil company Rosneft intends to develop large oil reserves on the wide-stretched tundra lands of northern Ural and export it through a projected seaport in the Taymyr Peninsula.