Stunt?

This is coolbert:

Here is a big surprise?

"Russia claims North Pole with Arctic flag stunt"

"Russia will fire the starting gun on the world’s last colonial scramble today when a submarine plants a flag under the North Pole to symbolize the Kremlin’s claim to the Arctic and its vast energy resources."



THE WORLD'S LAST COLONIAL SCRAMBLE???

The Russians already have their hands full with they possess now. NOT an adequate number of healthy young men to man the Russian military at THIS TIME! Will be worse in the decades to come. Claiming all that sea and the land underneath without the wherewithal to back up their claim is folly??

"In an unprecedented and potentially perilous mission, veteran Arctic explorer Artur Chilingarov will descend 14,000 feet in a deep sea submersible and drop a Russian tricolor cast in titanium onto the seabed."



"Global warming has given renewed impetus to the race for control of the Arctic."

"Melting ice sheets could open up the fabled North East passage, the quest for which claimed countless sailors’ lives, for the first time."

"The route, which could dramatically cut the length of a journey from Europe to Asia, could become navigable to commercial traffic within eight years."

I do recall from the early 1970's, when the North Slope oil of Alaska was first discovered. The oil tanker Manhattan made the voyage through the Northwest Passage just to see if it could be done. Was deemed not totally feasible or something like that!

"The more clement conditions make for an equally tantalizing prospect."

OH, yes, a boon to global warming after all. See, it all evens out. I could have told you so from the start.

[actually, I am skeptical of all this!!]

"According to some estimates, the Arctic is home to a quarter of the world’s untapped energy reserves - now more accessible than they ever have been"

Perhaps there are reserves of energy!!?? They said the same thing about the Gran Chaco and the Falklands too!!

"there is still doubt about the technical feasibility of extracting oil and gas from the Arctic."

Right!! Even if the stuff is there, it will next to impossible to even explore, much less to GET OUT of the ground and send to market. NEXT to IMPOSSIBLE!!

From time over the many decades, you would hear that the Arctic region was a potential battleground. American nuclear submarine versus Soviet nuclear submarine dueling in out under the Arctic ice pack.

Quite a stir WAS made when the U.S.S. Nautilus made the first transit of the Arctic Ocean, passing UNDER the North Pole!! Captain Anderson, commanding the Nautilus, became a national hero and was considered for high political office at the time.

It is known that the Soviets and perhaps the Americans and Canadians too have utilized floating islands of ice in the Arctic as bases for "research" and intelligence gathering. Islands of ice that maintain their cohesiveness and wander through the ocean, following the prevailing currents. The Soviets pioneered these islands for "military bases" [these are still used??].

My own perception is that the Arctic is now and will be for some time to come just is too harsh an area of the world to conduct military operations.

Whatever energy reserves are present will not be worth the value of confrontation and possible military action. It IS NOT going to be!

[let us not forget riverine warfare in the northern regions either. Global warming will mean that rivers currently flowing into the Arctic and choked with ice for at least six months of the year will become navigable. Rivers in Russian such as the Lena, Ob, Yenesei! The Mackenzie and Yukon of North America the same! This is pure speculation on my part of course!]

coolbert.