Putin, Russia and the North

While not new news to any readers who follow international relations, what does it mean when Russian scientists have claimed that the 1,220-mile long underwater Lomonosov Ridge is geologically linked to the Siberian continental platform? While not the start in a race for unclaimed territory, it is simply the latest salvo in an on-going dispute over which nations will be able to control what part of the Arctic, and therefore the ability to exploit or protect.By claiming the Lomonosov Ridge as Russian territory, Russia has claimed the Arctic seabed up until the North Pole, effectively planting a Russian flag on the vast oil, gas, and diamond reserves in this ecologically-sensitive region of the world.

How is it that Russia is able to claim the North Pole and the Lomonosov Ridge? The 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea allows for Arctic nations to map out the seabed in order to show that the attached continental shelf extends past the 200 nautical mile exclusion zone, therefore giving the sovereign country exclusive economic rights to the mineral, oil and gas reserves found therein.

Considering the past few years’ mineral and oil prices, it’s not that big a surprise to observers that Arctic nations are scrambling to claim what they feel is rightly theirs. The questions we should be asking should not only be about who is going to end up controlling what. Where national borders and exclusion zones are drawn is an important question related to national pride, sovereignty and economy that will be solved through a deliberative and political process involving scientists, Arctic nations, the United Nations and tremendous amounts of paperwork. As interested observers (and in some cases, citizens of implicated nations), we should also question whether or not the Arctic should be exploited, or if it should be protected.

For More Posts on the Arctic and the Environment:

• Northwest Passage; Myth or Reality?
• Arctic Ice in Battle for its Life
• Alaska Sues to End the Polar Bear

Photo Credit: World Economic Forum through Flickr

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