Western researchers have been left without crucial information on climate change in the Arctic because of a ban on co-operation with Russian scientists, The New York Times reports.
The publication reports that the exchange of data between scientists from Russia and the West has been reduced to a minimum due to sanctions. As a result, world science has been deprived of data on changes in the Arctic.
Researchers can no longer follow the melting of ice, the publication writes.
Italian scientist Alessandro Longhi told the newspaper that it is hardly possible to understand how the Arctic is changing without Russia.
Scientists studying the region’s wildlife have also faced problems. For example, Norwegian researcher Paul Aspholm, who has been working together with colleagues from Russia for 30 years, has been banned from contact with the Russian side.
‘Now we have an ‘ice curtain’,’ the publication quotes him as saying.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that unprecedented barriers were being erected against Russian scientists in other countries.
