The northern sea route: the interaction of economic and defense components

The paper contains the analysis of the economic and defense components of the Northern Sea Route in terms of growing geopolitical confrontation between Russia and NATO including USA. It has been proved that the implementation of the "imperial" US policy stipulates strengthening both military and economic presence of Russia in this region. The necessity of development of the nuclear icebreaker fleet as an important element of protection and defense of national economic interests has been substantiated.