Putin's Arctic invasion: Russia lays claim to the North Pole - and all its gas, oil, and diamonds

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has made an astonishing bid to grab a vast chunk of the Arctic, giving himself claim to its vast potential oil, gas and mineral wealth.

His audacious argument that an underwater Russian ridge is linked to the North Pole is likely to lead to an international outcry.

Some commentators have already observed it is further evidence of growing Russian assertiveness under its authoritarian president.

The Russian media trumpeted the findings of a Moscow scientific mission to the region which boasts "sensational" geological discoveries enabling the Kremlin to make the territorial claim.

Populist newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda - a cheerleader for Putin - printed a map of the North Pole showing a "new addition" to Russia, a triangle five times the size of Britain with twice as much oil as Saudi Arabia.

The six-week mission on a nuclear ice-breaker claimed that the underwater Lomonsov ridge is geologically linked to the Siberian continental platform - and similar in structure.

The detailed findings are likely to be put to the United Nations in a bid to bring it under the Kremlin noose, and provide the bonanza of an estimated 10 billion tonnes of gas and oil deposits as well as significant sources of diamonds, gold, tin, manganese, nickel, lead and platinum.

Under current international law, the countries ringing the Arctic - Russia, Canada, the US, Norway, Denmark (Greenland) - are limited to a 200 mile economic zone around their coastlines.

Currently, a UN convention stipulates that none of these countries can claim jurisdiction of the Arctic seabed because the geological structure does not match that of the surrounding continental shelves.

The region is administered by the International Seabed Authority - the authority now being challenged by Moscow.

A previous attempt to claim the oil and gas resources beyond its 200 miles zone five years ago was rejected - but this time Moscow intends to make a far more serious submission to the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

The head of the government-funded expedition Valery Kaminsky, director of the All-Russian Oceanic Scientific Research Institute, said he has key photographic evidence to prove the geological claims. "These are very interesting facts for the world community," he said.

Yuri Deryabin, head of the Institute of North European Countries, said: "I estimate Russia's chances to gets its piece of the Arctic pie highly enough - but the main battle is just starting." He acknowledged the negotiations would be "complicated".

The claim is likely to provoke an outcry from green groups but there is also Russian opposition.

Sergei Priamikov, of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, said the notion was "strange" and warned other countries could make counter claims.

Canada "could say that the Lomonosov ridge is part of the Canadian shelf, which means Russia should in fact belong to Canada, together with the whole of Eurasia", he observed drily.

A diplomatic source said that Russia was "seeking to secure its grip on oil and gas supplies for decades to come. Putin wants a strong Russia, and Western dependence for oil and gas supplies is a key part of his strategy. He no longer cares if his strategy upsets the West".

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1811

[Alex+R 0]

#######?

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

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double #######? From russia to the north pole? Thats quite a stretch.Pun intended.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

#######?

double #######? From russia to the north pole? Thats quite a stretch.Pun intended.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

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double #######? From russia to the north pole? Thats quite a stretch.Pun intended.

F##K That, I claimed it 5 years ago! Damn claim jumpers.

[Alex+R 0]

Americans were never geography pros....

[Scott & Lai 12]

Americans were never geography pros....

What does the topic have to do with Americans? It is Russia that is making the dubious claim...

Edited June 28, 2007 by Scott & Lai

[JoeMama 0]

Americans were never geography pros....

What does the topic have to do with Americans? It is Russia that is making the dubious claim...

Someone's got a hate-on for Americans

[Alex+R 0]

#######?

double #######? From russia to the north pole? Thats quite a stretch.Pun intended.

I was responding to this post.

[Heracles 417]

Americans were never geography pros....

What does the topic have to do with Americans? It is Russia that is making the dubious claim...

In the minds of certain American liberals; the US is bad and deserves to die.

Oh wait this is about Putin wanting to flex muscle. Whatever the US is 'still' bad bad bad..

[PlatyPius 5]

#######?

double #######? From russia to the north pole? Thats quite a stretch.Pun intended.

I was responding to this post.

Russia IS quite a stretch to the North Pole (mainland, at least) - Canada and Greenland are closer.

[Scott & Lai 12]

#######?

double #######? From russia to the north pole? Thats quite a stretch.Pun intended.

I was responding to this post.

Which was in referrence to the following from the article, which is from the UK:

His audacious argument that an underwater Russian ridge is linked to the North Pole is likely to lead to an international outcry.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1811

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Putin would be doing his country a favour if he were to move himself to the North-Pole, call it Puti-land and live in a cave for the remainder of his natural life.

[Nancy2015 2]

Gee, like we don't have enough permanently frozen land.

Someone please assasinate this ch###uck. He needs to go get a brain transplant and realize that maybe he should think about creating a knowledge-based economy, not try to grab all the oil reserves that are out there. What a damn moron.

[Heracles 417]

Gee, like we don't have enough permanently frozen land.

Someone please assasinate this ch###uck. He needs to go get a brain transplant and realize that maybe he should think about creating a knowledge-based economy, not try to grab all the oil reserves that are out there. What a damn moron.

He is stuck in the old soviet era and mindset. The attitude which bankrupted a nation and permanently silenced anyone who spoke out against it.

Edited June 29, 2007 by Infidel