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Russian shelf claim to UN in 2012

The Arctic Ocean

Russia will submit its claim for the Arctic shelf in 2012, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov says.

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Speaking at a session in the Russian Maritime Board in Naryan-Mar Wednesday, Deputy Premier Ivanov said that the country’s claim will be handed in to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in the course of 2012, Prime Tass reports.

The statement comes the day after the research vessel “Akademik Fyodorov” set off from Murmansk towards Arctic waters for further studies of Russia’s continental shelf.

Russian authorities earlier indicated that they intended to submit documentation to the UN commission already in 2011. Some believe that Russia will not be ready to hand in the bid before late 2013 or early 2014.

Norway is the only of the five Arctic countries bordering on the Arctic Ocean which has got its claims finally approved. In 2009, the UN Commission approved the country’s claim on the shelf. Norway’s newly defined continental shelf in the north covers 235,000 km2 or three-quarters the size of mainland Norway.

Read more: Limits of Norway’s Arctic seabed agreed

Russia’s claim includes an estimated 1,2 million km2. It is believed that Russia might have competing claims with both Denmark/Greenland and Canada in the area of the Lomonosov Ridge.

Read also: No dispute over Lomonosov Ridge