Among the possible fallouts, is the release of Cold War-era nuclear waste and material back into the environment.
Between 1955 and 1990, the Soviet Union conducted some 130 nuclear tests in the air and near the ocean floor off the coast of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in northwest Russia.
The tests saw the Russian detonate more than 220 explosive devices, releasing in the process about 265 megatons of nuclear energy.
More than 100 decommissioned nuclear submarines have also been scuttled, or sunk, in the nearby Barents and Kara Seas.
Russia to lift radioactive ‘time bombs’ from seafloor sparking fears of fish contamination
Similarly, the region has been contaminated by the US Cold War operation, including the Camp Century nuclear-powered under-ice research facility in Greenland.