- The Kremlin is closely watching Greenland after Trump expressed interest in the US acquiring it.
- The Kremlin’s press secretary said the Arctic is a zone of national interest for Russia.
- Trump said earlier this week that he would not rule out using military force to seize Greenland.
Russia is keeping a close eye on President-elect Donald Trump’s interest in acquiring Greenland.
The Kremlin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia is “watching the rather dramatic development of the situation very closely,” according to a report by Reuters.
“The Arctic is a zone of our national interests, our strategic interests,” Peskov said. “We are interested in preserving the atmosphere of peace and stability in the Arctic zone.”
Russia has ramped up its military presence in the Arctic in recent years. For example, it has deployed a substantially larger fleet of icebreaker ships — which break up ice in strategic waterways and increase maneuverability for other ships — to the Arctic than the US.
Trump, who expressed interest in buying Greenland as early as 2019, resurfaced his proposition in December and has since doubled down on his stance.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Trump said that he would not rule out using force to secure Greenland, which is an autonomous Danish territory, and regain control of the Panama Canal, a critical waterway for trade.
When asked for assurance that he would not resort to "military or economic coercion" to seize the two, he said, "I can't assure you."
"I'm not going to commit to that," he added.
"People really don't even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for National Security," he said of Greenland in the press conference.
He then threatened to impose tariffs on Denmark "at a very high level" if the Scandinavian country resisted giving up control of the Arctic territory.
Russia's statement comes after Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., landed in Greenland on Tuesday and met with locals in Nuuk, the capital city, according to his X posts.
A Tuesday video on his X showed the president-elect calling his son to talk to Nuuk locals.
In response to Trump's comments, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said to a local news outlet on Tuesday that Greenland is "not for sale."
Greenland's Prime Minister, Múte Egede, said in a December Facebook statement, "We are not for sale and will never be for sale."
Trump, meanwhile, has also talked about seizing control of the Panama Canal, a roughly 50-mile canal built in 1914 to link the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It was under US control until it was given to the Panama Canal Authority (PCA) in 1999.
Trump called for the canal's control to be returned to the US, slamming "exorbitant" fees for US ships passing through it.
Representatives of Trump and the Kremlin did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular business hours.