Russia’s Antarctic flagship, the Akademik Fedorov, sails into Cape Town as part of BRICS jamboree

Painted fire-engine red like the lion's share of Russia’s Antarctic state fleet, the aging Akademik Fedorov vessel creaked into the Mother City’s mist-laden harbour at around 9pm on Monday. The vessel had left its home port in St Petersburg on 2 November.

On board the research icebreaker are the Russian scientists and crew members tasked with organising and implementing Moscow’s interests in the Antarctic region, where the Vladimir Putin regime maintains five year-round scientific stations. 

The Fedorov vessel arrived with the city cloaked in a blanket of cloud and rain — as seems to be the wont of the Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE) when nosing into port here, be it summer or autumn.

“The vessel will carry out tasks of transporting fuel and cargo to supply Russian Antarctic stations, delivering participants of seasonal work and wintering personnel,” according to the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (Aari), the Russian state agency that directs Moscow’s scientific operations in the polar regions. 

“More than 500 polar explorers” will take part in the 70th “anniversary expedition”, says Aari director Dr Alexander Makarov, pointing out that the operation will involve vessels as well as aircraft travelling to and from Antarctica via Cape Town. 

One of the most significant events scheduled for the 70th RAE is sister vessel Akademik Tryoshnikov’s BRICS-style jamboree. Setting off from the Brazilian port of Rio Grande this week, the International Antarctic Coastal Circumnavigation Expedition (ICCE) plans to study the “Antarctic environment, especially the ice cover of the southern continent”. Scientists from several BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China — are joined by researchers from Argentina, Chile and Peru during the two-month cruise. En route, they will visit coastal stations of China, India and Russia. 

What the hull? Two kelp gulls look on as the Fedorov noses into Table Bay harbour on 4 March 2023. (Photo: Nic Bothma)

Moscow’s Antarctic BRICS charm offensive in Cape Town

Aari’s ICCE statement, issued Monday, does not mention South African scientists, but that does not mean Russia’s BRICS charm offensive on the southern frontier is likely to exclude them. 

Makarov was in Cape Town in October, meeting with several of South Africa’s top Antarctic scientists. The Aari director presented Professor Juliet Hermes, manager of the newly minted South African Polar Research Infrastructure (Sapri) with a toy replica of Russia’s Arctic research flagship vessel the North Pole (Severny Polyus). 

According to a statement on the website of the South African National Antarctic Programme (Sanap), the meeting brought together the researchers to “discuss how we can collaborate with Aari to share resources, infrastructures and expertise to protect and study this unique region [Antarctica]”.

When asked for comment, Hermes noted that “this was an exploratory visit as South Africa and Russia are BRICS partners and, in the spirit of the Antarctic Treaty, there is emphasis on consultative parties to explore ways to collaborate”. 

“There was nothing tangible that was decided and for further information on the formalities, you can contact Dr Gilbert Siko of the [Department of Science, Technology and Innovation] (in cc here) for the issues regarding scientific research collaborations.”

We had not received a response from Dr Gilbert Siko of the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) to five requests for comment sent since 15 November. 

The Fedorov’s location on 26 November 2024. (Source: Marine Traffic)

Challenging Russian isolation in the Far South 

Russia has been largely frozen out of Western partnerships in Antarctic sciences since it launched its illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a fellow Antarctic decision-making state. 

The war has had a dramatic impact on Ukraine’s Antarctic programme — even though Moscow’s delegation used the Antarctic Treaty’s October fisheries talks in Australia to suggest that Russia’s “negative impacts” on the programme were “an assumption” that was not supported by evidence.

And yet Ukraine’s newly acquired Antarctic research vessel, Noosfera, has been stranded in Cape Town for the duration of the war — with the exception of resupplying the country’s Vernadsky research station on the Antarctic Peninsula, and conducting ongoing natural science studies. 

In October 2022, a Russian missile partly destroyed Kyiv’s polar offices, while researchers from the Kyiv-based National Antarctic Scientific Centre (NASC) have fought on the battle front. 

Russia has friends in Antarctica

Western states at the recent acrimonious fisheries talks in Australia issued several statements condemning the ongoing invasion. Moscow’s delegation blocked every conservation proposal — including marine protected areas (MPAs) and krill fishing limits — and protested against difficulties obtaining visas. Moscow was backed by Beijing, which also used vetoes and suggested an “unrelated issue” [the illegal, full-scale invasion] should not “interfere” with a scientific meeting.  

Given the current rift between Russia and the West, Aari has repeatedly issued statements since the February 2022 invasion underlining the importance of cooperation — although much of this cooperation seems focused on strengthening BRICS scientific relationships in the Antarctic region.

A screenshot from Sanap’s October statement. It shows Aari’s Dr Alexander Makarov presenting Sapri’s Professor Juliet Hermes with a toy replica of the North Pole, Russia’s Arctic research flagship. (Source: South African National Antarctic Programme / Sanap website)

Aari’s desire to emphasise that Russia has friends in Antarctica, including Belarus which has a station there and maintains close regional ties with Moscow, appears to align with a broader scientific push that includes South Africa. 

Some 17 DSTI-selected “young innovators and scientists” are competing against 150 of “their peers” at the BRICS Young Innovator Prize that is being hosted in Sochi, Russia, this week. 

“The forum serves as a cornerstone of South Africa’s international scientific collaboration,” a DSTI statement notes. “It helps the country advance its research capabilities, empower its youth, and strengthen ties with key global partners — all while ensuring African issues remain central to the BRICS agenda.”

South Africa and Russia — historic polar connections

If South Africa and Russia share affinities within Antarctic governance, this is not exactly surprising but it is controversial. Together with Argentina’s Ushuaia, Chile’s Punta Arenas, Australia’s Hobart and New Zealand’s Christchurch, Cape Town is an official Antarctic gateway that has been used by the RAE for annual logistics for decades.

The US-sanctioned Akademik Alexander Karpinsky vessel has used Cape Town as a regular launchpad to produce inventories of Southern Ocean oil and gas, potentially totalling about 70 billion tons (500 billion barrels) in hydrocarbons. 

The inventories are “legal” science under the Antarctic Treaty’s mining ban, according to South Africa and Rosgeo, the Kremlin’s mineral explorer and owner of the RAE-flagged ship. 

‘Exploration with a future intention of exploitation’

Andrew de Blocq, the DA national spokesperson on forestry, fisheries and the environment, says the party is “deeply concerned with the recent uncooperative approach taken by both Russia and China” at the Antarctic fisheries and MPA talks in Australia. 

“This should be the forum for international collaboration around the expansion of protection" and "improved" ecosystem management, says De Blocq, “yet it is being undermined by these two states because of ulterior motives”.

De Blocq also points out that the party is “concerned about the activities of Russian research vessels, in particular the Akademik Alexander Karpinsky, around Antarctica, allegedly prospecting and mapping hydrocarbons. 

“We are of the opinion that these activities are in contravention of the Madrid Protocol and constitute exploration with a future intention of exploitation.” 

‘Child trafficking, deportation’: Putin ‘still faces an ICC arrest warrant’

As for the Fedorov, De Blocq argues its “docking in South African ports can be seen as tacit support for the Russian Federation by South Africa in a tense global climate where Russian President Vladimir Putin still faces an ICC arrest warrant for child trafficking and deportation. 

“This vessel is the literal and figurative flagbearer for Russia’s Antarctic programme and the presence of the Akademik Fedorov in the South African ports could be construed as condonation of Russia’s controversial activities, or worse complicity therein. In the context of Russia’s war with Ukraine, and the more granular effect this war has had on the Ukrainian Antarctic programme, this perceived alignment should be strongly avoided by South Africa.” 

De Blocq adds that the “DA does not support South Africa’s reception of Russian vessels in our ports. Given sanctions imposed upon the Russian Federation, and many of its ocean vessels by the US, UK and EU, South Africa should not permit the docking of the Akademik Fedorov at the risk of deteriorating its image on the global stage, incurring penalties or suffering third-party sanctions as a result.”

A former seabird conservationist with BirdLife South Africa, which is raising funds to rid Marion Island of bird-eating mice, De Blocq says the party “reconfirms” its “support for the conservation of Antarctica as the world’s last great wilderness, free of the greedy extractive activities that will accelerate and amplify the threats facing its fragile ecosystems, and free of any nefarious activity which may be perpetrated by the Russian Federation in the region under the thin guise of scientific research”.

Meanwhile, sailing to Antarctica’s Southern Ocean since 1987, the Akademik Fedorov is an iconic emblem of Russian exploration in the south as well as north pole regions. In August 2007, it was from the Fedorov that two deep-sea manned vehicles, Mir-1 and Mir-2, were lowered about 4,300m to the North Pole’s geographic point, controversially planting the Russian flag on the seabed.

Scheduled to call at three Russian stations and a field base, the Fedorov will also visit the Belarusian Antarctic expedition’s Gora East Antarctic post. 

Aari could not be reached for immediate comment. DM

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