Putin Wants to Haul More Fish Along the Northern Sea Route

I'm not sure what the Russians are up to with this but I'm pretty sure that it's not because moving our finny friends thousands of miles by ship suddenly got more economical. And especially not if they use the ancient nuclear-powered container ship pictured in the story.
As noted in one of last years posts (they are multiple) on the topic:
September 11, 2019
"Norway Would Like To Know If Russia Plans To Make More Salmon Hauling Trips With Their Nuclear Container Ship":

....If only there was some sort of land based transportation mode that could make the trip, something that crossed Siberia, Trans-Siberian if you will, that was comprised of individual cars that could be hooked up in train.  And get the damn salmon to Moscow in days not weeks.

Maybe put 'em on a boat in Petropavlovsk and sail them across the Sea of Okhotsk to Sovetskaya Gavan, whose harbormasters are (reputedly) eminently bribable and will speed your multi-modal perishables on their way west to wind up in some fat mafioso's belly. Ditto for Vladivostok but you'll need to wave a bit more cash to get anyone's attention.

And from the Barents Observer, May 21:

Putin instructs more fish freight via Northern Sea Route

"Okay, let’s work it out," the Russian President said after discussing how to transport more seafood from the Far East with the help of Rosatom’s nuclear-powered container carrier.

It was in a meeting on agriculture and food industry, chaired by Putin via a video link from outside Moscow, the question on how to boost deliveries of fish from the Far East to the European part of Russia came up.

One-third of all-Russian catch are from Kamchatka and deliveries to the markets in the most populated parts of Russia, nine-time zones to the west, are challenging for the Russian railways that lack refrigerated carriers.

The acting governor of the Kamchatka Territory, Vladimir Solodov, said his region’s fish enterprises ship seafood to Vladivostok for further deliveries to Moscow, but the serious shortage of transport capacity delays the transport and makes it more expensive. Especially during peak season from July to September when most of the salmon are caught.

“In our opinion, the solution could be to more actively using the Northern Sea Route to deliver fish to the central regions of Russia,” acting governor Solodov said according to the transcripts from the video-linked meeting.

He estimates that some 50-60 thousand tons of Pacific salmon could be shipped along the Northern Sea Route. In the longer run, the amount could be brought up to 250-300 thousand tons.
The words of the governor were music for Vladimir Putin’s ears. The Russian President has made it a national priority to reach at least 80 million tons of annual goods via the Northern Sea Route already by the year 2024. Last year, 31,5 million tons were shipped on the route.

Two times faster 
Sailing fish directly from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky via the Arctic and around Scandinavia to St. Petersburg is two times faster than sailing it to Vladivostok for reloading to the Trans-Siberian railway, governor Solodov informed....

....MUCH MORE

Ha, so they address the overland option!
Not buying their explanation. Another of last year's posts:
November 11, 2019 
Russian Plan For Second Salmon Hauling Voyage With Their Nuclear-Powered Container Ship Cancelled

Ya think?
They were transporting fish on a nuclear powered ship.
The long way. (vs land transport):
Seriously what are the Russians up to with this?

 
I'm starting to think this is some sort of Bond-villain caper, with the propeller story just a ruse to cover for the fine-tuning of the under-hull submarine docking chamber.
Or something.

Maybe it's related to the submarine disaster last July that killed 14 high ranking officers (captains and commanders).
We had quite a few links to that Russian oddity:....

Here's another one:
September 3, 2019
"The Nuclear Powered Container Ship Sevmorput Is Going to Haul Salmon Along the Northern Sea Route (and Norway and Denmark)"

This is an odd story. First off the Sevmorput is old. It went into service in 1988.
Secondly, although I haven't asked about the costs, you would have to assume a nuclear cargo ship would have to carry some high value cargo to pay the freight, so to speak.

Last March the ship was carrying construction materials and equipment from Archangel to Novatek's LNG 2 project off the Ob river and we were going to do a post on this oddball ship and its five day trip.
That at least made sense: high-value cargo short distance, entirely within Russian waters....