COMMENTARY — Alaska gateway to Russia

Alaska and Russia share a relationship, and companies wishing to do business in eastern Russia should consider opening an office in Alaska.

The most obvious advantage of Alaska-based offices for Russian operations is the proximity of the areas, which is important for travel and communication. For instance, the Russian mining region of Magadan is four time zones west of Alaska. This is the same time difference between Alaska and the eastern U.S. Business days in Alaska overlap with those of both Russia and the East Coast. The further east one moves from Alaska, the more difficult it will be to keep in close contact with a Russian project or partner.

Air travel for personnel is another area in which Alaska has a distinct advantage. Magadan is about four hours by air from Anchorage, and there are now regularly scheduled flights between the cities, as well as to and from Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. The time lost travelling back and forth between Russia and North America can be significant if one flies out of the lower U.S. states or Canada.

Alaska also is an ideal locale from which to ship supplies into Russia.

Anchorage and Magadan, for example, have a handful of customs agents within a small area whereas New York and Moscow have thousands of agents working in an area of several square miles.

On a purely technical level, miners, geologists and engineers with Arctic experience have an advantage over their counterparts in the rest of the U.S., in that they understand such ground conditions as discontinuous permafrost, which is common to both Alaska and Russia. For the miner, geologist and prospector, the mineral terranes of the Russian Far East are an extension of those found in Alaska, the Yukon and British Columbia.

— The preceding originally appeared in the newsletter of the Alaskan Miners Association, of which the author is executive director.