Gas And Glory Fuel Race For The Pole

The aim is to stake a symbolic claim to the pole and large chunks of Arctic territory for Russia. Moscow is seeking to put forward a legal claim to a United Nations commission in 2009 -- 100 years after the first explorers claimed to have reached the pole by sled and husky. "We are going to be the first to put a flag there, a Russian flag," expedition leader Artur Chilingarov, 68, told a televised news conference before setting off from the northern port of Murmansk late Tuesday. "The Arctic is ours and we should demonstrate our presence," said Chilingarov, a Duma deputy speaker who heads the country's Association of Polar Explorers. Following behind a nuclear-powered icebreaker, the latest deep-sea maneuvers are part of a larger scientific mission to investigate the geology of the under-explored territory. Despite engine trouble delaying the mission temporarily early Thursday, all seemed back on course later in the day, reporters on board the convoy said. "We must remind the whole world that Russia is a great polar and scientific power," said Duma Deputy Vladimir Gruzdev, Chilingarov's fellow submariner on the trip. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/07/27/001.html [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on July 30, 2007]

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