Abstract. The article analyzes the problem of revising the interstate borders in the Arctic and the Antarctic legal status. These issues have repeatedly arisen in the international relations. However, the fight for control of circumpolar territories used to be episodic and conducted mainly by diplomatic means. Nowadays, the Arctic powers began to dispute the revision of the boundaries of the Arctic sectors and the distribution of the “oceanic co-management” system on the Arctic Ocean. The debates are conducted concerning the boundaries of the Southern Ocean’s sectors, on the status of the territories adjacent to the Antarctic and on a return to the drafts of sectoral division of Antarctic. These trends increase the risk of interstate confrontation in circumpolar areas. For Russia a possible redistribution of polar spaces does not mean anything positive.