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darkhorse_NZ
Joined: 20 Feb 2007
Location: South Korea
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 Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:06 pm Post subject: The North Pole belongs to......... |
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Russia
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World Story
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Russian sub plants flag under North Pole
9:48AM Friday August 03, 2007
Two Russian submersibles started a dive into the Arctic Ocean in a mission to symbolically claim the resource-rich region by planting a flag on the seabed under the North Pole, Russian media reported. Photo/ Reuters
MOSCOW - Russian explorers have dived deep below the North Pole in a submersible and planted their national flag on the seabed to stake a symbolic claim to the energy riches of the Arctic.
A mechanical arm dropped a specially made, rust-proof titanium flag painted with the Russian tricolour onto the Arctic seabed at a depth of 4,261 metres (13,980 ft).
"It was so lovely down there," Itar-Tass news agency quoted expedition leader Artur Chilingarov as saying as he emerged from one of two submersibles that made the dive.
"If a hundred or a thousand years from now someone goes down to where we were, they will see the Russian flag," said Chilingarov, 67, also a top pro-Kremlin member of parliament.
Russia wants to extend right up to the North Pole the territory it controls in the Arctic, believed to hold vast reserves of untapped oil and natural gas, which is expected to become more accessible as climate change melts the ice.
But Canada mocked Russia's ambitions and said the expedition was nothing more than a show.
"This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say 'We're claiming this territory'," Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay told CTV television.
Under international law, the five states with territory inside the Arctic Circle - Canada, Norway, Russia, the United States and Denmark via its control of Greenland - have a 320 km economic zone around the north of their coastline.
Russia is claiming a larger slice extending as far as the pole because, Moscow says, the Arctic seabed and Siberia are linked by one continental shelf.
"Then Russia can give foundation to its claim to more than a million square kilometres of the oceanic shelf," said a newsreader for Russia's state news channel Vesti-24, which made the expedition their top news story.
Russian media have said the move could raise tension with the United States in a battle for Arctic gas.
more here--
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10455592
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Every time I think of a Russian sub I hear a choral rendition of the Hymn of Red October. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Could this be the start of another Cold War? |
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darkhorse_NZ
Joined: 20 Feb 2007
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| Could this be the start of another Cold War? |
hehe was that just a pun I read? 
who knows? the russians aren't up to it though, unless it's just the Canadians and Danes that kick up a stink |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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Well, do any of the other nations that this might affect have the balls to challenge them? I don't know if the post-nation's of Canada or Denmark could muster much more than a tersely worded diplomatic response. These states are functionally no different than NGO's and as such unable to defend anything of significance.
America is busy spreading democracy to the barbarians.
I suppose the Russians made a smart move. They now own the North Pole. |
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safeblad
Joined: 17 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:12 pm Post subject: |
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| its just a symbolic claim which has doesnt stand up to international law, Russia doesnt have the strength of institutions or population to own anymore territory anyway, the land which supposedly links their territory to the north pole is being silently conquered through chinese immigration. |
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Alyallen
Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Location: The 4th Greatest Place on Earth = Jeonju!!!
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| Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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| BJWD wrote: |
Well, do any of the other nations that this might affect have the balls to challenge them? I don't know if the post-nation's of Canada or Denmark could muster much more than a tersely worded diplomatic response. These states are functionally no different than NGO's and as such unable to defend anything of significance.
America is busy spreading democracy to the barbarians.
I suppose the Russians made a smart move. They now own the North Pole. |
I dunno...Canada looks like it won't back down from this one...
MacKay mocks Russia's "15th century" Arctic claim Thu Aug 2, 8:49 AM ET
CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island (Reuters) - Canada on Thursday dismissed Russia's claim to a large chunk of the resource-rich Arctic, saying the tactic was more suited to the 15th century than the real world.
A Russian submersible on Thursday dived beneath the ice under the North Pole and planted a titanium flag on the seabed, staking a symbolic claim as Moscow seeks to extend the territory in the Arctic it controls right up to the North Pole.
"This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say 'We're claiming this territory'," said Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay.
"There is no threat to Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic ... we're not at all concerned about this mission -- basically it's just a show by Russia," he told CTV television.
The five states with territory inside the Arctic Circle -- Canada, Norway, Russia, the United States and Denmark via its control of Greenland -- have a 320 km (200 mile) economic zone around the north of their coastline.
Russia says its expanded claim is justified because the Arctic seabed and Siberia are linked by one continental shelf.
Canada's Conservative government is vowing to assert sovereignty over its Arctic lands and waterways. Last month Ottawa said it would build up to eight patrol ships designed to operate in the frozen region, which is believed to hold huge untapped oil and gas reserves. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 8:38 pm Post subject: |
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What is Canada going to do? What could we do?
After WW2 Canada has the second largest Navy on earth and a military to be feard. Now they catch a ride with the Yanks for deployments because they don't have the ability.
Russia is a nation that hasn't caught on to the post-modern European idea of a nation-state being nothing more than a NGO + refugee-hospital/repository that the Federal Liberal Party of Canada has convinced Canadians is in our interest. |
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safeblad
Joined: 17 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 11:18 pm Post subject: |
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| BJWD wrote: |
What is Canada going to do? What could we do?
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| In a sign of how tense the situation is becoming, the Canadian government recently placed a C$7bn (�3.25bn) order for new naval patrol vessels, a move that Prime Minister Stephen Harper said was designed to 'defend its sovereignty over the Arctic'. |
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2137048,00.html |
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safeblad
Joined: 17 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 11:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| Could this be the start of another Cold War? |
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In the darkest depths of the Arctic Ocean a new Cold War is brewing. American and British nuclear submarines lurk in the shadows, preparing for company.
'Why has Britain been sending submarines into Arctic waters?' asked Rob Huebert, associate director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies in Calgary. 'Because it wants to retain its capability to deal with the Russian threat.'
Such talk is redolent of a Le Carr� novel. But the battle between the West and Russia over who owns the Arctic has been building for years. Last week it entered a new phase when Russia announced it was sending a miniature submarine, equipped with a team of explorers, to claim a chunk of the Arctic Ocean the size of Western Europe. |
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2137048,00.html
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