German Cargo Ships Complete Northeast Passage For First Time - Times

The merchant vessel Fraternity passed Nowaja Zemlya, regarded by Russia as the official exit point of the Northern Sea Route, at the weekend. Its sister ship Foresight is due to follow in a few days after being delayed by bad weather in Siberia. Their journey to reach the Dutch port of Rotterdam by late September will complete a crossing that started in Ulsan, South Korea. The ships, each loaded with about 2,000 tonnes of cargo and destined for a Siberian power plant, set off for the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok on July 23.

They arrived two days later but, in a sign of the sensitivity of the project, the ships waited for a month before Russian authorities gave them clearance to continue towards the Northeast Passage. The owners of the vessels, the Beluga Shipping Company in Bremen, visited Moscow twice to negotiate the crossing with the Russian Government. But permission was granted only on August 21 after approval from the Defence Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB).

The ships made rapid progress but were joined by Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers as a precaution along the most hazardous section of the Northeast Passage along the Vilkizki Strait.

Reports from the crew revealed the extent that the melting ice had receded. They encountered little or no ice for most of the week-long journey through the passage, noting only the occasional iceberg.

EDIT

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6832885.ece

Good for me in the short term, perhaps, but potentially an indicator that things really have slipped.