Russia plants flag under the North Pole
Russia claims the Arctic could geographically relate to Russia
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Thursday, 02, Aug 2007 05:51
Russian explorers have planted their country's flag on the seabed deep under the Earth's North Pole in a bid to extend their claim to the region.
A specially designed rust-proof titanium flag now lies 4,000m below the surface following a research mission which lasted over nine hours.
Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported the two mini-submarines have completed their seabed research and have now resurfaced.
It claims the expedition's main task was to establish if the North Pole zone relates geographically to the Siberian platform and if it is part of Russia's continental shelf.
Dr Ralph Rayner, vice-president of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, told the Today programme that today's mission was a "fairly high profile" display of Russian capabilities.
"Planting of a flag in a capsule has no significance in a legal sense, but all of the countries bordering the Arctic are in various ways expressing interest in extending their claims to the Arctic ocean," he said.
"It's a region that in the past has had military interest, but now has very significant economic interest, because of the prospect of there being very large undiscovered reserves of oil and gas."