Russian Scientists Say the Arctic Is Theirs

[jetsetter]

Toss another stick or two on to that smoldering Cold War fire: There’s renewed talk of expanding the Russian Empire.

This time, it’s not President Vladimir V. Putin spawning the headlines, but a group of geologists. After a 45-day expedition, the scientists say they have discovered new evidence that would bolster a Russian claim to a vast part of the Arctic region beyond the 230-mile maritime economic zone belonging to Russia and the four other nations bordering the Arctic Ocean: Canada, Denmark (through its posession of Greenland), Norway and the United States.

One Russian paper celebrated the discovery by publishing a large map of the Arctic under the Russian flag, the Guardian reported.

By identifying a geological link between the continental shelf abutting Russia’s Far North and the North pole by way of a sea-floor feature called the Lomonosov Ridge, Russia could reportedly press a claim to roughly 460,000 square miles of ocean as its territorial waters — an area whose size approaches the Mexican Cession (529,189 square miles), which added Texas, California and states in between to the United States. (Still short of the Louisiana Purchase’s 828,000, though.) And Russia wouldn’t be paying a ruble for it, either.

A BBC map shows Russia’s proposal; this set of maps from The New York Times illustrates the area at stake and different ways it might be divided.

In this battle for Arctic territory, the United States is on the sidelines for the moment, as conservatives in Congress delay ratification of the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which governs all claims. Once that treaty is ratified, there is a ten-year deadline for claiming new areas of the sea as territorial waters.

In a somewhat unlikely alliance, though, Canada and Denmark are stepping up instead. They are trying to establish that, contrary to the Russian claim, the Lomonosov Ridge “belongs not to the Siberian continental shelf but to the Canadian-Greenland shelf,” according to a Chicago Tribune report earlier this month.

The Russians have tried to advance their claim before, and were turned away by the United Nations in 2001. The new geological data is evidently meant to improve the odds for a second try.

What Russia and all the other nations are after isn’t the vastness of icy brine between their shores so much as what is underneath it — potential oil and gas reserves worth hundreds of billions of dollars, which are growing more feasible to explore and develop as the polar ice cap shrinks, easing access for drilling rigs.

A 2005 report in The Times set the stage for the fight for other potential Boreal treasure as well, including “lucrative shipping routes, perhaps even the storied Northwest Passage; new cruise ship destinations; and important commercial fisheries.”

“It’s the positive side of global warming, if there is a positive side,” a Canadian official said at the time.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/200...ntas-workshop/

It is already the world's biggest country, spanning 11 time zones and stretching from Europe to the far east. But yesterday Russia signalled its intention to get even bigger by announcing an audacious plan to annex a vast 460,000 square mile chunk of the frozen and ice-encrusted Arctic.

According to Russian scientists, there is new evidence backing Russia's claim that its northern Arctic region is directly linked to the North Pole via an underwater shelf.

Under international law, no country owns the North Pole. Instead, the five surrounding Arctic states, Russia, the US, Canada, Norway and Denmark (via Greenland), are limited to a 200-mile economic zone around their coasts.

On Monday, however, a group of Russian geologists returned from a six-week voyage on a nuclear icebreaker. They had travelled to the Lomonosov ridge, an underwater shelf in Russia's remote and inhospitable eastern Arctic Ocean.

According to Russia's media, the geologists returned with the "sensational news" that the Lomonosov ridge was linked to Russian Federation territory, boosting Russia's claim over the oil-and-gas rich triangle. The territory contained 10bn tonnes of gas and oil deposits, the scientists said.

Russia's Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper celebrated the discovery by printing a large map of the North Pole. It showed the new "addition" to Russia - the size of France, Germany and Italy combined - under a white, blue and red Russian flag.

Yesterday, however, some scientists doubted whether Russia's latest Arctic grab stood up to scrutiny.

To extend a zone, a state has to prove that the structure of the continental shelf is similar to the geological structure within its territory. Under the current UN convention on the laws of the sea, no country's shelf extends to the North Pole. Instead, the International Seabed Authority administers the area around the pole as an international area.

"Frankly I think it's a little bit strange," Sergey Priamikov, the international co-operation director of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St Petersburg, told the Guardian. "Canada could make exactly the same claim. The Canadians 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."

Mr Priamikov said the area was one of breathtaking natural beauty. It was much drier, colder and quieter than the western Arctic, he added. "I've been there many times. It's an oasis for marine life," he said. Asked whether it would be feasible to drill for oil, he said: "Yes".

The shelf was 200 metres deep and oil and gas would be easy to extract, especially with ice melting because of global warming, he said.

Russia has the world's largest gas reserves. It is the second largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia. The Kremlin is keen to secure Russia's long-term hegemony over global energy markets, and to find new sources of fuel.

Russia first made a submission in 2001 to the UN commission on the limits of the continental shelf, seeking to push Russia's maritime borders beyond the existing 200-mile zone. It was rejected.

But the latest scientific findings are likely to prompt Russia to lodge another confident bid - and will alarm the US, which is mired in a 13-year debate over ratification of a UN treaty governing international maritime rights.

The Law of the Sea Treaty is the world's primary means of settling disputes over exploitation rights and navigational routes in international waters. Russia and 152 other countries have ratified it.

But the US has refused, arguing it gives too much power to the UN. If the US does not ratify it, Russia's bid for the Arctic's energy wealth will go unchallenged, proponents believe.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/art...d=networkfront

[TomCat]

What about the moon? Is that still ours? We better claim that thing before zee Russians try something.

[thedguy]

I thought an American flag was already planted on the cheese ball floating around us

[nomix]

No, that was done in a studio. Read up on conspiracies, mate.

Anyway, if those mad ruskies try to muscle in on OUR effing ice, we'll be there with our whale harpoons and our secret nukes in a wiff.

Wait, did I mention the nukes? Oh cock.

[American TG Man]

Considering global warming, the north pole will melt before they can lay claim to it.

[tigger]

Originally Posted by American TG Man

Considering global warming, the north pole will melt before they can lay claim to it.

Well they don't want the ice . If the ice melts then it will be that much easier to drill for oil up there.

[FATMOUSE]

Originally Posted by nomix

No, that was done in a studio. Read up on conspiracies, mate.

I heard they did it in a soundstage on Mars.

[BlaRo]

Yeah, well who's going to claim the SUN?!

[nomix]

We'll leave that for the Germans. After all, they're the only race who's organized and have the technical knowhow to make the sun a livable place.

Will be very soulless, but very perfect.