There is an increased interest in the Arctic regions of the planet in recent years. Russia has the longest Arctic shelf with great prospects for hydrocarbons under its jurisdiction. So, the Arctic Islands will play a major role as an infrastructural base for development of oil and gas resources on the shelf in the Arctic Ocean in the near future. Minerals of major islands and archipelagos of the Russian Arctic: Novaya Zemlya, Franz-Josef Land, Severnaya Zemlya, the New Siberian Islands and the Wrangel Island as well as the Spitsbergen archipelago (Norway) where Russia has its own territory formally enshrined for the extraction of coal and other minerals are considered in the article.
