The workers searching for gas in the icy Russian Arctic – a photo essay

Engineers and miners work short stints in the wretched Siberian cold to extract gas - Putin's trump card against Europe. Photojournalist Justin Jin was granted unprecedented access during several visits over the last decade, and offers a rare close-up look

2022 - The Russian Arctic region, an area of 7,000 sq km atop the planet stretching from Finland to Alaska on which Moscow bureaucrats bestowed the name Zone of Absolute Discomfort, is wretched to live in, but just hospitable enough to allow for the extraction of resources trapped beneath it.

Gas extractors burn off excess condensate in the Russian Arctic tundra. The practice, called flaring', is harmful to the environment.