:00:03. > :00:06.World. Lucy Ash travels to the remote Yamal Peninsula high above
:00:06. > :00:09.the Arctic Circle. She meets both the people who travel there for
:00:09. > :00:11.work, and the indigenous herders whose way of life is under threat
:00:11. > :00:13.from the development of the region's gas reserves. Russia's new
:00:13. > :00:23.energy Frontier. This part of the Arctic contains the biggest gas
:00:23. > :00:29.
:00:29. > :00:34.reserves on the planet. The new feel that comes online this
:00:34. > :00:43.summer has enough guests to eat a quarter of the times in Europe for
:00:43. > :00:53.35 years. But what is the human cost? High above the Arctic Circle,
:00:53. > :01:26.
:01:26. > :01:30.indigenous pupils way of life is In the last ten years, Russia under
:01:30. > :01:35.the government of Vladimir Putin has been getting richer. Moscow now
:01:35. > :01:45.a glitzy 24 a glitzy 24ropolis, one of the largest and most expensive
:01:45. > :01:46.
:01:46. > :01:49.cities in the world. Here, no shortages of luxury goods. Vladimir
:01:49. > :01:54.Putin is president again and theoretically he could be in power
:01:54. > :01:58.for the next 12 years. Thanks to Russia's vast reserves of
:01:58. > :02:03.hydrocarbons, living standards have gone up three times during the last
:02:03. > :02:11.decade. High all prices and the state monopoly gas, has been the
:02:11. > :02:15.real instrument of his power. But how much longer can at last? --
:02:15. > :02:25.that last. He has repeatedly stressed his country's claim on
:02:25. > :02:30.
:02:30. > :02:34.Arctic. With an hours of being sworn in as his present, he bowed
:02:34. > :02:40.to boost the navy presence in the region to protect Russian interests.
:02:40. > :02:45.We travelled to the autonomous region 1,500 miles from Moscow. It
:02:45. > :02:50.is sparsely populated but so rich in resources it has highest credit
:02:50. > :02:57.rating after Moscow and St Petersburg. Petersburg.ring here but
:02:57. > :03:03.temperatures can, to 30 Celsius. the language of the native people,
:03:03. > :03:10.it means the edge of the year. Reindeer herders have managed to
:03:10. > :03:20.survive in these conditions for have outlived communism and the
:03:20. > :03:38.
:03:38. > :03:42.It is dominated by gas Prom this former Soviet gas ministry are now
:03:42. > :03:52.controlled by the Putin government. You can actually hear the gas
:03:52. > :04:00.
:04:00. > :04:05.hissing through these pipes. This old. This has been up and running
:04:05. > :04:11.since 2001 and is the newest of its large fields already operating in
:04:11. > :04:18.the Arctic. There's, employs qualified staff from all over
:04:18. > :04:23.Russia. This facility runs a fly in fly out model like an oil rig.
:04:23. > :04:28.Workers are enticed by salaries six times the national average. They
:04:28. > :04:38.also get free holidays on southern beaches and other benefits. In the
:04:38. > :05:17.
:05:17. > :05:21.control room I meet a man from the It has created a comfortable double
:05:21. > :05:27.for workers in the middle of the permafrost. Every kind of creature
:05:27. > :05:37.comfort here, fresh food has fought in and there are plenty of
:05:37. > :05:37.
:05:37. > :05:41.activities to keep workers occupied. The posters are blue rather than
:05:41. > :05:47.red but they remind me of the Soviet era, with the emphasis on
:05:47. > :05:56.hard work for the future of the country. You will not find this
:05:56. > :06:02.some ways, it seems guess promise like a proxy for the state here. I
:06:02. > :06:08.decide to drop in on my friend after his football game. He shares
:06:08. > :06:18.a small flat with three other men but they all work different shifts.
:06:18. > :06:47.
:06:47. > :06:53.He misses his wife and child to a It may have grand designs but this
:06:53. > :06:58.is not the first attempt to conquer Russia's Arctic. Josef Stalin
:06:58. > :07:06.wanted to open the region with an 800-mile railway inside the polar
:07:06. > :07:10.circle. A local historian shows me the brew, like many of his Arctic
:07:10. > :07:15.adventures, it was built with forced labour by so-called enemies
:07:15. > :07:20.of the stake. All these women in the pictures were prisoners working
:07:20. > :07:30.on the railway and they are photographed with the Qolhak Garden
:07:30. > :07:33.
:07:33. > :07:38.This is a monument to the realm road Five-O one built under Stalin.
:07:38. > :07:45.The plaque says this train track was ruthlessly laid down at the
:07:45. > :07:50.cost of many lives between 1947 and 1953. The plaque says the deeds of
:07:50. > :07:55.these people will never be forgotten. Ironically, the railway
:07:55. > :08:01.became known as the dead road because after Stalin died, it was
:08:01. > :08:07.abandoned and the rails were swallowed up by the tundra. This
:08:07. > :08:17.woman is showing me what remains of the tracks in the region's capital.
:08:17. > :08:55.
:08:55. > :08:59.were like for the prisoners who In Stalin's time people were forced
:09:00. > :09:03.to work in the Arctic. Now many come by choice. We're going into
:09:03. > :09:08.the tundra this morning to meet some reinde some reindenot
:09:08. > :09:13.get their easily, there are no roads. So we have rented this
:09:13. > :09:23.income income up to my shoulder. It is
:09:23. > :09:27.
:09:27. > :09:32.better than going by motorbike. I'm going to go and get in. Ambitious
:09:32. > :09:37.plans and those who implement them come and go for this region is a
:09:37. > :09:42.permanent home to the native people. They have survived many dangers
:09:42. > :09:52.including Stalin's terror, now they face a new trial. In the spring may
:09:52. > :10:25.
:10:25. > :10:29.with a guess, has built a huge new This man's Reine de brigade travels
:10:29. > :10:34.a thousand miles each year from the Forest hund Forest hundhe
:10:34. > :10:38.peninsula. The herd is movie every few days to find fresh pasture land
:10:38. > :10:48.for their animals. He has six children and followed in his
:10:48. > :10:48.
:10:48. > :11:54.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 66 seconds
:11:54. > :12:04.I am being invited in for a cup of tea. I'm very curious to see what
:12:04. > :12:11.
:12:11. > :12:14.it is like in here. This is the family home. There are already a
:12:14. > :12:20.dozen people having meals and sleeping here and now we have come
:12:20. > :12:27.to join them. In the winter, there is not much to eat here except for
:12:27. > :12:37.reindeer meat and fish. Reindeer provide food, transport and
:12:37. > :12:41.
:12:41. > :12:51.clothing. My clothing feels a bit thin so Nikolai's wife dresses me
:12:51. > :13:18.
:13:18. > :13:21.Outside, it protects me from the blizzard. Yamal is the only part of
:13:21. > :13:27.Russia where reindeer herding did not decline or stagnate after the
:13:27. > :13:33.collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, there are 600,000 reindeer here,
:13:33. > :13:36.managed by 15,000 nomads. Because numbers have been steadily rising,
:13:36. > :13:45.the herders say they badly need the grazing land which is now
:13:45. > :13:55.controlled by Gazprom. Yevgeni Houdi says the company's new field
:13:55. > :13:55.
:13:55. > :14:50.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 66 seconds
:14:50. > :14:59.interferes with the herder's summer Nikolai is painfully aware of the
:14:59. > :15:04.changing landscape, partly because he was born. And the more the gas
:15:04. > :15:07.field expands, the harder the summer migration. But Gazprom says
:15:07. > :15:14.it tries to accommodate the herders by raising pipelines and adapting
:15:14. > :15:24.road services. This corporate video shows managers' consulting them
:15:24. > :15:40.
:15:40. > :15:44.Gazprom is also the main sponsor spring festival. It gives out
:15:44. > :15:54.prizes for sled races and other contests in an effort to keep the
:15:54. > :15:55.
:15:55. > :16:05.This is a senior Gazprom manager who greets the crowd on behalf of
:16:05. > :16:05.
:16:05. > :17:32.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 66 seconds
:17:32. > :17:39.He is keen to demonstrate his He likes working in a region with
:17:39. > :17:49.so much wealth beneath the permafrost. But what really excites
:17:49. > :18:01.
:18:01. > :18:11.him is the prospect of extracting But Grigori Lietkova, the Nenets MP,
:18:11. > :18:35.
:18:35. > :18:38.warned underwater drilling could But when su But when suices are at
:18:38. > :18:44.stake, will fishing grounds and livelihoods of these people count
:18:44. > :18:50.for much? The person recently elected has taken his message back
:18:50. > :19:00.to the parliament. When we met in April, the former Energy Minister
:19:00. > :19:28.
:19:28. > :19:36.The minister is addressing a global so costly and technically demanding
:19:36. > :19:44.that the Russian government It has allowed the Anglo-Russian
:19:44. > :19:48.joint set-up TNK BP into the area to extract both oil and gas.
:19:48. > :19:55.government recognises this is in the interests of Russia to have a
:19:55. > :19:58.diverse group of oil companies resource base. All decisions
:19:58. > :20:06.relating to the development of infrastructure in the region are
:20:06. > :20:13.looked at through the lens of health and safety and environment.
:20:13. > :20:23.I believe we will set a high standard. That is good for Russia
:20:23. > :20:30.
:20:30. > :20:36.and good for the industry. Money from energy companies hope to
:20:36. > :20:46.increase so increase so keeps it il keeps it iler his contempt.
:20:46. > :20:48.
:20:48. > :20:58.-- discontent. Be using this is a It is a pit for the current legal
:20:58. > :21:09.