Murmansk is a city and seaport in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, 12 km from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland. Murmansk is the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast. The port remains ice-free year round due to the warm North Atlantic drift ocean current and is an important fishing and shipping port. Its satellite, Severomorsk, is an important navy base for the Russian Navy. It is home port to Atomflot, the world's only fleet of nuclear-powered ice breakers. Murmansk is the largest city north of the Arctic Circle with an estimatef population of 468,039.
Murmansk is set to be the Russian terminus of the Arctic Bridge (or Arctic Sea Bridge), a sea route that would link it to the Canadian port of Churchill, Manitoba. This passage has not yet been fully tested for commercial shipping but Russia has shown interest in it.