An expedition aimed at strengthening Russia's claim to much of the Arctic Ocean reached the North Pole yesterday afternoon, as preparations began for two mini-submarines to drop a capsule containing a Russian flag to the sea floor, a spokesman said. Sergei Balyasnikov, from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, which prepared the expedition, said the Rossiya atomic icebreaker had ploughed a path to the pole through an unbroken sheet of multi-year ice, clearing the way for the Akademik Fyodorov research ship to follow. The voyage, led by the noted polar explorer and Russian legislator, Arthur Chilingarov, has some scientific goals, including the study of Arctic plants and animals. But its chief aim appears to be to advance Russia's political and economic influence by strengthening its legal claims to the gas and oil deposits thought to lie beneath the Arctic sea floor.

Sergei Pryamikov, director of the international department of the St Petersburg-based institute, told Russia's RTR Television: "I think that one of the tasks, at least for public consumption, is to put a claim and enlarge our territory by achieving the recognition of the Arctic shelf as a continuation of Russia's Eurasian part." Russian scientists hope to deploy the two mini-submarines beneath the pole to a depth of more than 13,200ft (4,000 metres). Mr Balyasnikov said the dive was expected to start this morning and last for several hours. "For the first time in history people will go down to the seabed under the North Pole," he said. "It's like putting [a] flag on the moon."

The symbolic gesture, along with geologic data being gathered by expedition scientists, is intended to prop up Moscow's claims to more than 460,000 square miles of the Arctic shelf - which by some estimates may contain 10 billion tons of oil and gas deposits. The expedition reflects an intense rivalry between Russia, the US, Canada and other nations whose shores face the northern polar ocean for the Arctic's icebound riches. About 100 scientists aboard the ship are looking for evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge - a 1,240-mile underwater mountain range that crosses the polar region - is a geologic extension of Russia.
(By Douglas Birch, The Independent, 02/08/2007)