Murmansk is a city in the extreme northwest of Russia with a seaport on the Kola Gulf, 20 miles from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland. It has some 400,000 inhabitants and is an important navy base. The port remains ice-free year round due to the warm North Atlantic drift ocean current. Murmansk is the largest city in the world located at such a high northerly latitude. Murmansk is the administrative centre of Murmansk Oblast.