Miami Justice Our World

World. Lucy Ash travels to the remote Yamal Peninsula high above

the Arctic Circle. She meets both the people who travel there for

work, and the indigenous herders whose way of life is under threat

from the development of the region's gas reserves. Russia's new

energy Frontier. This part of the Arctic contains the biggest gas

reserves on the planet. The new feel that comes online this

summer has enough guests to eat a quarter of the times in Europe for

35 years. But what is the human cost? High above the Arctic Circle,

indigenous pupils way of life is In the last ten years, Russia under

the government of Vladimir Putin has been getting richer. Moscow now

a glitzy 24 a glitzy 24ropolis, one of the largest and most expensive

cities in the world. Here, no shortages of luxury goods. Vladimir

Putin is president again and theoretically he could be in power

for the next 12 years. Thanks to Russia's vast reserves of

hydrocarbons, living standards have gone up three times during the last

decade. High all prices and the state monopoly gas, has been the

real instrument of his power. But how much longer can at last? --

that last. He has repeatedly stressed his country's claim on

Arctic. With an hours of being sworn in as his present, he bowed

to boost the navy presence in the region to protect Russian interests.

We travelled to the autonomous region 1,500 miles from Moscow. It

is sparsely populated but so rich in resources it has highest credit

rating after Moscow and St Petersburg. Petersburg.ring here but

temperatures can, to 30 Celsius. the language of the native people,

it means the edge of the year. Reindeer herders have managed to

survive in these conditions for have outlived communism and the

It is dominated by gas Prom this former Soviet gas ministry are now

controlled by the Putin government. You can actually hear the gas

hissing through these pipes. This old. This has been up and running

since 2001 and is the newest of its large fields already operating in

the Arctic. There's, employs qualified staff from all over

Russia. This facility runs a fly in fly out model like an oil rig.

Workers are enticed by salaries six times the national average. They

also get free holidays on southern beaches and other benefits. In the

control room I meet a man from the It has created a comfortable double

for workers in the middle of the permafrost. Every kind of creature

comfort here, fresh food has fought in and there are plenty of

activities to keep workers occupied. The posters are blue rather than

red but they remind me of the Soviet era, with the emphasis on

hard work for the future of the country. You will not find this

some ways, it seems guess promise like a proxy for the state here. I

decide to drop in on my friend after his football game. He shares

a small flat with three other men but they all work different shifts.

He misses his wife and child to a It may have grand designs but this

is not the first attempt to conquer Russia's Arctic. Josef Stalin

wanted to open the region with an 800-mile railway inside the polar

circle. A local historian shows me the brew, like many of his Arctic

adventures, it was built with forced labour by so-called enemies

of the stake. All these women in the pictures were prisoners working

on the railway and they are photographed with the Qolhak Garden

This is a monument to the realm road Five-O one built under Stalin.

The plaque says this train track was ruthlessly laid down at the

cost of many lives between 1947 and 1953. The plaque says the deeds of

these people will never be forgotten. Ironically, the railway

became known as the dead road because after Stalin died, it was

abandoned and the rails were swallowed up by the tundra. This

woman is showing me what remains of the tracks in the region's capital.

were like for the prisoners who In Stalin's time people were forced

to work in the Arctic. Now many come by choice. We're going into

the tundra this morning to meet some reinde some reindenot

get their easily, there are no roads. So we have rented this

income income up to my shoulder. It is

better than going by motorbike. I'm going to go and get in. Ambitious

plans and those who implement them come and go for this region is a

permanent home to the native people. They have survived many dangers

including Stalin's terror, now they face a new trial. In the spring may

with a guess, has built a huge new This man's Reine de brigade travels

a thousand miles each year from the Forest hund Forest hundhe

peninsula. The herd is movie every few days to find fresh pasture land

for their animals. He has six children and followed in his

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I am being invited in for a cup of tea. I'm very curious to see what

it is like in here. This is the family home. There are already a

dozen people having meals and sleeping here and now we have come

to join them. In the winter, there is not much to eat here except for

reindeer meat and fish. Reindeer provide food, transport and

clothing. My clothing feels a bit thin so Nikolai's wife dresses me

Outside, it protects me from the blizzard. Yamal is the only part of

Russia where reindeer herding did not decline or stagnate after the

collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, there are 600,000 reindeer here,

managed by 15,000 nomads. Because numbers have been steadily rising,

the herders say they badly need the grazing land which is now

controlled by Gazprom. Yevgeni Houdi says the company's new field

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interferes with the herder's summer Nikolai is painfully aware of the

changing landscape, partly because he was born. And the more the gas

field expands, the harder the summer migration. But Gazprom says

it tries to accommodate the herders by raising pipelines and adapting

road services. This corporate video shows managers' consulting them

Gazprom is also the main sponsor spring festival. It gives out

prizes for sled races and other contests in an effort to keep the

This is a senior Gazprom manager who greets the crowd on behalf of

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He is keen to demonstrate his He likes working in a region with

so much wealth beneath the permafrost. But what really excites

him is the prospect of extracting But Grigori Lietkova, the Nenets MP,

warned underwater drilling could But when su But when suices are at

stake, will fishing grounds and livelihoods of these people count

for much? The person recently elected has taken his message back

to the parliament. When we met in April, the former Energy Minister

The minister is addressing a global so costly and technically demanding

that the Russian government It has allowed the Anglo-Russian

joint set-up TNK BP into the area to extract both oil and gas.

government recognises this is in the interests of Russia to have a

diverse group of oil companies resource base. All decisions

relating to the development of infrastructure in the region are

looked at through the lens of health and safety and environment.

I believe we will set a high standard. That is good for Russia

and good for the industry. Money from energy companies hope to

increase so increase so keeps it il keeps it iler his contempt.

-- discontent. Be using this is a It is a pit for the current legal