Russia bids for vast Arctic territories at UN

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday submitted the renewed claim to the United Nations for an additional 1.2 million square kilometers (463,000 square miles) of the Arctic continental shelf. Rivalry for Arctic resources has intensified as shrinking polar ice is opening new opportunities for exploration.

In 2002, Russian Federation submitted its first claim to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, stating it had sufficient evidence to back rights over the area.

Nonetheless, since the UN rejection, Moscow has arranged for a few high-profile scientific expeditions to the Arctic to gather more data.

Greenpeace responded by warning of the environmental risks.

While countries squabble over who owns what in the Arctic, it’s slowly melting away. “Unless we act together, this region could be dotted with oil wells and fishing fleets within our lifetimes”.

“Filing the bid with the Commission is a significant step towards registration of Russia’s rights to the continental shelf in the Arctic area, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982”, the comment said.

He urged countries seeking jurisdiction over the Arctic to work together to create a protected sanctuary around the North Pole.

Russia made a symbolic claim to part of the territory in 2007 by dropping a canister containing a Russian flag on to the ocean floor from a submarine in the North Pole.

A Soviet-era military base on the New Siberian Islands has been restored and other outposts in the region have been beefed up.

Among tensions over the Ukraine crisis and with neighbours in the Baltic, Vladimir Putin has also moved to increase his military presence in the Arctic.

This image taken on April 16, 2015 shows natural gas storage facilities under construction at the Russian port of Sabetta in the Kara Sea shore line on the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic circle.