Last voyage for icebreaker Rossiya
“Rossiya” left Murmansk on January 15, to take the trip along the coast of Norway and through the narrow Øresund between Sweden and Denmark to the Gulf of Finaland, where it will be deployed until the end of April to assist commercial shipping during the winter navigation, Barents Observer reports.
It is still uncertain when “Rossiya” will be laid up and what will happen to the vessel afterwards. “Rossiya” was taken into service in 1985, as the world’s fourth nuclear-powered icebreaker. In 1990 it became the first Soviet vessel to take foreign tourists to the North Pole.
The first time a nuclear-powered icebreaker was sent to the Gulf of Finland to assist the local diesel icebreakers in keeping the waters open for traffic was in February 2011. Extremely difficult ice conditions had 58 vessels waiting for assistance when it was decided to send in “Vaygach” from Murmansk.
In January 2012 Russia sent its largest nuclear-powered icebreaker “50 Years of Victory” to the area. It was two months replaced by “Rossiya”, which continued working in the area until the end of April.
