[LINK] "Kamchatka, Home to Russian Version of Alaska’s Iditarod, Frets Over Growth"
Neil MacFarqhar in The New York Times took an intruiging look at Russia's Kamchatka peninsula, positioning the remote territory as being on the verge of being the next Alaska.
When Vladislav Revenok, an Orthodox priest, first participated in the obscure Russian version of Alaska’s Iditarod, he found himself in places so isolated that he was mobbed by villagers demanding to be baptized. They told him he was the first priest to visit the outback of the already remote Kamchatka Peninsula in about 50 years.
“Only a few small villages see us,” Mr. Revenok, a veteran musher, said by telephone after finishing the arduous 17-day race in late March. “When I arrive at the finish line and see all those people waiting - journalists, the crowd, so many cars - I feel like I am arriving back on a different planet.”
Kamchatka’s very isolation once afforded a measure of protection for its astounding beauty: a crown of 300 volcanoes, including around 25 that are still active; a central valley of erupting geysers; rivers so red and so thick with spawning salmon that walking on water seems distinctly possible; oceans inhabited by crabs the size of turkeys.
Even many locals do not know the peninsula that well. About 80 percent of the population lives in three southern cities. But isolation no longer provides the same insurance. Kamchatka is caught between ambitious plans to develop untapped resources like gold and oil, and efforts to preserve its natural splendor.
Oil exploration has started in the Sea of Okhotsk, which separates the peninsula from mainland Russia, and the first natural gas wells now operate onshore. Two gold mines are already working, and 10 more are in the planning stages.
Local officials want Petropavlovsk to become the main transit harbor for hulking container ships that can deflect ice as they ply the Arctic route between China and Europe. In addition, the government is trying to raise the number of tourists to 300,000 from 40,000 annually.
When Vladislav Revenok, an Orthodox priest, first participated in the obscure Russian version of Alaska’s Iditarod, he found himself in places so isolated that he was mobbed by villagers demanding to be baptized. They told him he was the first priest to visit the outback of the already remote Kamchatka Peninsula in about 50 years.
“Only a few small villages see us,” Mr. Revenok, a veteran musher, said by telephone after finishing the arduous 17-day race in late March. “When I arrive at the finish line and see all those people waiting - journalists, the crowd, so many cars - I feel like I am arriving back on a different planet.”
Kamchatka’s very isolation once afforded a measure of protection for its astounding beauty: a crown of 300 volcanoes, including around 25 that are still active; a central valley of erupting geysers; rivers so red and so thick with spawning salmon that walking on water seems distinctly possible; oceans inhabited by crabs the size of turkeys.
Even many locals do not know the peninsula that well. About 80 percent of the population lives in three southern cities. But isolation no longer provides the same insurance. Kamchatka is caught between ambitious plans to develop untapped resources like gold and oil, and efforts to preserve its natural splendor.
Oil exploration has started in the Sea of Okhotsk, which separates the peninsula from mainland Russia, and the first natural gas wells now operate onshore. Two gold mines are already working, and 10 more are in the planning stages.
Local officials want Petropavlovsk to become the main transit harbor for hulking container ships that can deflect ice as they ply the Arctic route between China and Europe. In addition, the government is trying to raise the number of tourists to 300,000 from 40,000 annually.