CJ Exclusive: The Arctic Shadow War – The Lomonosov Ridge Intercept
London, UK – January 4, 2026
CJ Exclusive: The Arctic Shadow War – The Lomonosov Ridge Intercept.
While the public eyes are focused on the tropics of Venezuela and the deserts of Iran, the Castle Journal Exclusive Department has received a high-priority intelligence brief regarding a kinetic “near-miss” in the Arctic Circle.
We can reveal that on December 28th, a Russian “Project 09852” special-purpose submarine, the Belgorod, engaged in a high-stakes underwater standoff with a Chinese “Type 094” Jin-class vessel near the Lomonosov Ridge.
This incident marks the first documented military friction between the two “limitless” partners over Arctic resources.
The Rare Earth Discovery
The source of the conflict is a massive, newly mapped deposit of “Heavy Rare Earth Elements” (HREE) located on the seabed of the ridge.
CJ Exclusive intelligence source confirms that a joint scientific expedition in late 2025 discovered concentrations of dysprosium and terbium—critical for high-temperature military magnets—that far exceed any known land-based deposits.
While the two nations previously agreed to “joint exploration,” Moscow recently moved to unilaterally declare the sector a “Protected National Resource Zone,” deploying advanced underwater autonomous vehicles (UAVs) to begin preliminary extraction.
The Chinese vessel’s presence in the area was interpreted by the Kremlin as an act of “resource espionage,” leading to a 12-hour acoustic “pinging” war that nearly escalated into a torpedo exchange.
The “Gordian Knot” of Arctic Sovereignty
Our investigation shows that Russia is currently re-allocating nearly $126 million from its 2026 budget to a secretive “Arctic Legacy” project.
While officially designated for raising sunken nuclear submarines (such as the K-27), our sources within the Rosatom state corporation suggest the funding is actually being used to install a permanent “Seabed Monitoring Network” across the Lomonosov Ridge.
This network is designed to detect and disable any foreign unmanned submersibles. China, realizing it is being frozen out of the “blue economy” in the North, has reportedly begun secret negotiations with Canadian and Danish private contractors to provide “secondary survey data,” a move that has infuriated the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The “limitless partnership” between Putin and Xi is currently being tested by the freezing realities of the Arctic seabed.
The London Connection
CJ Global has uncovered that a London-based maritime insurance firm was the first to flag the incident after their sonar-tracking buoys—ostensibly used for tracking “Ghost Fleet” oil tankers—recorded the acoustic signatures of the standoff.
The UK government has been briefed on the incident but has chosen to remain silent to avoid alerting the public to the high probability of an “Arctic Resource War” by 2027.
As the ice continues to thin, the Lomonosov Ridge is becoming the most dangerous geopolitical chokepoint on Earth. The battle for the 21st century’s minerals is no longer being fought on land; it has moved to the silent, crushing depths of the North Pole.
