According to political commentator, Maxim Krans, the expedition was on last Friday blessed by the Russian government’s Marine Commission During last years Arktika-2007 expedition, the explorers planted a Russian flag on the North Pole sea bottom. The expedition had the goal of providing evidence of Russias ownership rights for a 1200 square kilometre Arctic area including the North Pole and the Lomonosov Ridge. In a recent statement, member of parliament and head of the Arktika-2007 expedition, Mr. Artur Chilingarov says Russia opposes the idea to make the Arctic an area under joint international jurisdiction. According to Mr. Krans, he said that “It is no secret that polar countries are trying to make the Arctic an international resource. We, however, must make it plain to the global community that we will not give up our interests in the Arctic.” Russia has little time left to prove the far from obvious fact that the Lomonosov Ridge under the ocean is a continuation of the Siberian continental platform. This, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, allows Russia to claim a triangle with a base formed by the coastline from the Kola Peninsula to Chukotka’s tip and the apex at the North Pole.
