Putin Uses Subs and Science to Lay Claim to North Pole

However, as per the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, every nation that extends 200 nautical miles into the ocean from the nation’s baseline can have an exclusive economic zone.

Setting aside the obvious benefits that lay with the Arctic gas and oil deposits Russian Federation is targeting, it is interesting to review other stakes at hand in gaining control over 463,000 square miles of the Antarctic, including the North Pole.

It has become that much more attractive due to accelerated Arctic ice melting rates.

Countries have begun clamoring to assert ownership over areas of the Arctic and countries such as Canada, United States, Norway and Denmark have all put in a bid for jurisdiction over Arctic acreage believed to contain a quarter of the earth’s untapped oil and gas resources, according to the publication.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) has stated that efforts to broaden Russia’s presence within the Arctic area are for each safety and pure assets causes.

Conflicting claims may arise, yet the UN Commission will only address Russia’s claim next year and is not capable of deciding on overlapping claims.

On August 2, 2007, a Russian expedition called Arktika 2007, composed of six explorers led by Artur Chilingarov, employing MIR submersibles, for the first time in history descended to the seabed at the North Pole. Earlier in 2002, the UN rejected the bid on lack of evidence.

This time around the Russian Ministry says the new arguments put forward by the government come backed with scientific data collected in relation to Arctic research.

Military drills were conducted in March in the Arctic Circle.

Russians used two submarines to reach 13,200 feet under the North pole where they placed the flag on the seabed as a symbol that the region is a Russian territory.

The major obstacles facing ratification are the provisions of Part XI of the Convention on the Law of the Sea, relating to minerals on the seabed outside any state’s territorial waters or EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zones). If geological facts will support Russia’s claim, worldwide law will recognize Putin’s economic claim of the Arctic and may award an area as large as 350 nautical miles.