--- title: Behind Russia's Arctic Land Grab description: Why Russia wants the Arctic, how wages stopped growing, heart-repairing 'velcro,' assessing why we train foreign armies and more. canonical: https://time.com/4017112/russia-arctic-land-grab/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-31T16:01:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:01:51.272Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Behind Russia's Arctic Land Grab og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4017112/russia-arctic-land-grab/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Behind Russia's Arctic Land Grab twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Behind Russia's Arctic Land Grab by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 31, 2015 4:01 PM CUT by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 31, 2015 4:01 PM CUT **1\.** [**Russia just claimed half a million square miles of the Arctic. They won’t get it.**](http://carnegieendowment.org/2015/08/27/why-russia-s-latest-attempt-at-land-grab-is-farce/if84 "undefined") By Paul Stronski at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace **2\.** [**Here’s why wages are flat and how to fix it.**](http://theconversation.com/america-doesnt-just-need-a-raise-we-need-a-new-national-norm-for-wage-growth-46831 "undefined") By Thomas Kochan in the Conversation **3\.** [**See how scientists created human “tissue velcro” to repair damaged hearts.**](http://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/tissue-velcro/ "undefined") By Tyler Irving in University of Toronto Engineering News **4\.** [**Are the billions we spend training the militaries of other nations worth it?**](http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/does-security-assistance-reduce-terrorism "undefined") By Matthew Saintsing in Small Wars Journal **5\.** [**What Donald Trump gets wrong about the border.**](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/about/blog/why-trump-has-got-it-all-wrong "undefined") By Abigail Golden-Vazquez in the Aspen Idea  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ "undefined") _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4017112/russia-arctic-land-grab/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4017112/russia-arctic-land-grab/"},"headline":"Behind Russia's Arctic Land Grab","datePublished":"2015-08-31T16:01:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:51.272Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4017112/russia-arctic-land-grab/","keywords":["Innovation","russia","Immigration","Labor Day","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4017112/russia-arctic-land-grab/","name":"Behind Russia's Arctic Land Grab"}}]}] ```