If Russia wasn't such a hostile country, flights would have been able to go over Russia instead of the North Pole and flight crew and passengers wouldn't have needed to be as much exposed to cosmic radiation.
I have been told that a flight across the North Pole would expose you to about the same amount of radiation as a CT scan, but I haven't checked the figures.
BTW. I'm planning to fly over the North pole twice next month anyway, because I have chronic latent blood cancer and I'm not going to live forever.