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Russian submersibles stake Arctic claim
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 02 - 08 - 2007


Russia staked a claim to untapped oil and gas
reserves in the North Pole Thursday as polar researchers in
submersibles planted a rust-resistant titanium Russian tricolour on
the sea floor, according to dpa.
Two Mir submersibles manned with Russian scientists dived to a
depth of 4,261 metres and planted the symbolic flag 30 years after
the first nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika made it to the North
Pole.
"The Arctic belongs to us," expedition leader Artur Chilingarov
said.
According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the goal of
the expedition is to collect evidence that the underwater range of
mountains on the North Pole is connected to mainland Russia.
The Russian minister added that the question of ownership has to
be re-established on the basis of international law.
According to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the
Sea, the polar states have rights to territory toward the North Pole
320 kilometres from their respective mainlands.
Russia hopes to add to its territory an additional 1.2 million
square kilometres, an area roughly twice the size of France.
The United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway also have claims to
the territory.
As global warming leads to the melting of the polar ice caps and
exploration technology improves, the possibility of exploiting the
possible oil and gas reserves under the Arctic has become more
realistic.
Russia's polar mission has reached fever pitch in recent days as
the nuclear-powered icebreaker Rossiya, research ship Akademik
Fyodorov, two submersibles and helicopters with some 100 team members
converged on the North Pole for the dive.
The explorers also left behind on the sea floor a capsule with a
message from Russia for future generations and a flag from the
Kremlin's United Russia party, Chilingarov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally appointed
Chilingarov, head of the Association of Polar Explorers of the
Russian Federation and a lawmaker in the Duma, or parliament, to head
the expedition.
Russia has been increasing its expenditure on polar exploration
year on year, Chilingarov said.
With the polar mission that is due to continue until October 5,
the Kremlin is emphasizing its political direction ahead of
presidential elections in the winter.
Russia has claimed the waters between the Kola Peninsula and the
Bering Strait as its territory since Stalin's times.
The modern Mir nickel-steel-alloy submersibles on Thursday
effortlessly broke their previous record dive of 2 kilometres.
Canada and Denmark have also laid claims to the 1,800km-long and
3,700km-high undersea Lomonosov mountain range and have announced
surveys to back up their claims.
The range actually lies closer to Danish-administered Greenland
and Canada's Ellesmere Island that to the Russian mainland.
It is estimated that there are 10 billion tons of oil and gas in
the polar region worth more than 1 trillion dollars, Izvestiya
newspaper reported. There are also believed to be large reserves of
gold and diamonds.
Russia hopes to secure its claim to the Lomonosov range at the
United Nations by 2009.


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