In 2022, the seven Western members of the Arctic Council — the US, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Iceland — suspended participation in all meetings co-chaired by Russia. Moscow held the rotating presidency. The body, which had spent three decades quietly managing one of the world’s most consequential regions, stopped functioning almost overnight. What followed was silence dressed up as procedure. Working groups on shipping lanes, indigenous rights, environmental monitoring, and search-and-rescue coordination went dark.