Russia Claims the North Pole

[TechBear_Seattle]

Source: Time, via Yahoo News

President Vladimir Putin has long promised to restore Russian greatness and build an "energy empire." But until now, his empire-building had been confined to taking control of corporations operating on his turf, buying into businesses abroad, and blackmailing former Soviet Republics who dared vote against Moscow-backed candidates, moved to join NATO or acted in otherwise uppity ways. But Putin's imperial ambitions have recently added an element of classic 19th century-style territorial expansion: Late last month, Moscow signaled its intentions to annex the entire North Pole, an area twice the size of France with Belgium and Switzerland thrown in - except all of it under water.

The ice-frozen North Pole is currently a no man's land supervised by a U.N. Commission. The five Polar countries - Russia, the U.S., Canada, Norway and Denmark each control only a 200-mile economic zone along their coasts. And none of these economic zones reach the North Pole. Under the current U.N. Maritime convention, one country's zone can be extended only if it can prove that the continental shelf into which it wishes to expand is a natural extension of its own territory, by showing that it shares a similar geological structure.

So, the Russians claimed a great scientific discovery late last month. An expedition of 50 scientists that spent 45 days aboard the Rossia nuclear ice-breaker found that an underwater ridge (the Lomonosov ridge) directly links Russia's Arctic coast to the North Pole. This, they insist, surely guarantees Russia's rights over a vast Polar territory that also happens to contain some 10 billion tons of oil and natural gas deposits.

Russia's first attempt to expand beyond its Arctic zone was rebuffed by the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, but Moscow hopes that its "latest scientific findings" will produce a different outcome when the Commission next meets, in 2009.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20070716/wl_time/russiaclaimsthenorthpole

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Well this certainly is getting interesting.

I guess Santa doesn't get a vote on this.

[acmavm]

2. Hell with Santa, what up with bush**s bestest buddy Putie? Is he

trying to cut him out of the oil loot? This ought to be a good squabble some where down the line.

[Benhurst]

4. Haven't you ever noticed that Santa goes around passing out

things for free. He is, and always has been, a damned communist.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. And he wears red clothing.

[Benhurst]

6. And just who is this "Mrs. Claus", anyway? Has anyone ever seen a

marriage license?

I thought not.

[flying rabbit]

17. Don't get me started

on those "elves" either.
:nuke:

[Wiley50]

16. No, Only Office Party Santas go around passing out n/t

[pschoeb]

3. Everyone is trying to claim North Pole

This article is total BS, acting like Russia is acting in a poor manner. Denmark and Canada have both tried to claim North Pole as well.

2004 Article on Denmark claiming North pole
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3716178.stm

Canada claims North Pole, Canada has always claimed(since 1920's) a substantial portion of the North pole territory, but no one really recognizes this claim.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,2123164,00.html

[TrogL]

11. Canada needs to declare war on Russia

We already had a pissing contest with Denmark.

[Seabiscuit]

13. They're all just playing procedural games in the U.N., which will never cave in.

[underpants]

7. up next: laser on the moon

:scared:

How did Denmark get into that action? Iceland??

[lakeguy]

12. greenland. nt

[rodeodance]

8. ........ to proudly raised the Russian flag over the South Pole. ..........

The North Pole isn't the only prize in the eyes of the resurgent Russian empire - Moscow is also looking to restore control over a 47,000 sq. km (18,000 sq. mile) piece of the Bering Sea separating Alaska from Russian Chukotka. The territory was ceded to the U.S. in 1990 under the U.S.-Soviet Maritime Boundary Agreement signed by Secretary of State James Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. While the deal may have helped ease Cold War tensions, anti-reform Soviet hardliners always opposed giving up a piece of territory rich in sea life and hydrocarbon deposits, and they and their nationalist successors prevented the agreement's ratification. Today, the Agreement still operates on a provisional basis, pending its ratification by the Russian parliament.

But what had once been a battle cry of the nationalist opposition has now become the official line. In recent weeks, Kremlin-controlled media have berated the Agreement as a treasonous act by Shervardnadze (who later became the pro-NATO president of Georgia). Now, leading pro-Kremlin members of the Russian legislature are publicly demanding that the Agreement be reviewed, with the aim of recovering the country's riches.

Meanwhile, on the morning of January 7 this year, the rotor blades of a Russian Mi-8 helicopter shattered the divine silence at the opposite end of the Earth, disgorging a group of top Russian dignitaries led by none other than FSB (the former KGB) Director Nikolai Patrushev, to proudly raised the Russian flag over the South Pole. At the time, it might have looked like a stunt. But back in 2004, Patrushev landed at the North Pole in much the same fashion. Stay tuned.

View this article on Time.com

[Skink]

9. Not so fast eh. Comrades.

[demgurl]

10. Oh sure, now that all that ice is melting....

everyone is looking for a new vacation spot.........but who is protecting our drowning polar bears? :cry:

[davepc]

20. More like tax/tarrif revenue from the new shipping traffic.

as the ice recedes, the shipping traffic will increase.

The fabled "Northwest Passage" that spurned European exploration of much of North America and the arctic will actually exist.

[Solon]

14. Russia, Denmark, and Canada all want the rewards that would be reaped from a melted North Pole...

Canada wants its northwest passage, Denmark the same, and Russia wants to regulate whatever trade increases along the north pole. Billions of Euros in revenue are at stake, I don't know if they will fight a war over it, but I imagine many vigorous debates at the U.N. over the issue.

[Beam Me Up]

15. why aren't people RECing this? this needs more attention. n/t

[autorank]

18. What a bunch of idiots. How stupid will our world leaders get...

...well, not as stupid as *, but they're working at it.

You can't claim ice based on an underground mountain range but why not. * claimed he had a reason
to invade Iraq related to national security.

They're all full of it. They all ignore climate change, the real peril. They should take the next
space shuttle to Mars, our "leaders."

[northofdenali]

19. OMG, only the tackiest tourist town in Alaska.............

:rofl: - I KNOW you didn't mean the town, but it is seriously freeperville. Main attraction? The Santa Claus House, of course:



and right next door is - SantaLand RV Park! You really can't miss it:



AND has it's own designer reindeer (captive, of course):



Seriously, if the Russians want the Town of North Pole, the Fairbanks North Star Borough would do great by giving it to them. Pure freeper heaven (that includes most of the residents). The damn streetlights are designed like candy canes. :puke:

On edit: If the Russians invade North Pole, they may have some problems. I think every resident of this town of under 2000 has at least 47 guns, most of which are semi-autos.........

[mikelgb]

21. too late, Santa already owns it.

[AwakeAtLast]

22. I was going to ask if that makes Santa Claus Russian

and will children have to learn Russian in order to write him letters?

;)

:rofl:

[ret5hd]

23. He wears red, surveillance & intelligence expert (awake, sleeping),

gulags (toy factory)...maybe Putin himself is Santa Claus!

[slackmaster]

24. OK, so Russia and Canada are going to war

:popcorn:

[rug]

25. The war on Christmas has gotten hotter.

[4_TN_TITANS]

26. C'mon, just look deep into Putin's soul...

he's a good guy, means well....

[leveymg]

27. RemInds me of that Cold War Classic (;-) ICE STATION ZEBRA

[ohio2007]

28. Now he wants the oil under the north pole? next he will also claim the magnetic north pole

just in time to bother the Canadian claims of oil tracts

[Flabbergasted]

29. Kick