Russian Scientists Say the Arctic Is Theirs - NYTimes Lede Blog

[YankeyMCC]

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Toss another stick or two on to that smoldering Cold War fire: There’s renewed talk of expanding the Russian Empire.

This time, it’s not President Vladimir V. Putin spawning the headlines, but a group of geologists. After a 45-day expedition, the scientists say they have discovered new evidence that would bolster a Russian claim to a vast part of the Arctic region beyond the 230-mile maritime economic zone belonging to Russia and the four other nations bordering the Arctic Ocean: Canada, Denmark (through its posession of Greenland), Norway and the United States.
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What Russia and all the other nations are after isn’t the vastness of icy brine between their shores so much as what is underneath it — potential oil and gas reserves worth hundreds of billions of dollars, which are growing more feasible to explore and develop as the polar ice cap shrinks, easing access for drilling rigs.

A 2005 report in The Times set the stage for the fight for other potential Boreal treasure as well, including “lucrative shipping routes, perhaps even the storied Northwest Passage; new cruise ship destinations; and important commercial fisheries.”
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http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/whats-the-russian-for-santas-workshop/

Guardian Story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2113289,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Maps: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/10/09/international/20051010_ARCTIC_GRAPHIC_2.html