A polar bear family group, consisting of an adult female and two cubs, crosses glacier ice in Southeast Greenland in this handout photograph taken in September 2016. NASA OMG/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Thursday said that Russia had strategic national interests in the Arctic when asked to comment on U.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Russia is closely monitoring the situation, after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out military action to take Greenland from Denmark. Peskov said the Arctic was in Russia's "sphere of national and strategic interests and it is interested in peace and stability there".

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to make Greenland a part of the United States and does not rule out using military or economic power to get Denmark to hand it over.

Alex Wagner breaks down the origins of Trump's interest in taking over Greenland and the Panama Canal and why its serious, however ridiculous the idea may be.

Faced with what many in Denmark are calling Trump's "provocation," Frederiksen has broadly attempted to strike a conciliatory tone, repeatedly referring to the US as "Denmark's closest partner". It was "only natural" that the US was preoccupied by the Arctic and Greenland, she added.