MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Russia plants flag in sea bed ratifying Antarctica ambition

Six months after having planted the tricolor flan in the geographic North Pole, Russia has done the same in the southern Pole in a clear expression of its renewed ambitions in Antarctica and its natural resources.

"The Russian flag was planted on Thursday in the geomagnetic South Pole sea bed, in the coordinates 64 degrees 28' South and 137 degrees 37' latitude East" said spokesperson Sergei Baliasnikov from the Artic and Antarctic Science Research Institute. The "symbolic" operation took place at the bottom of the Durvil Sea by the scientific research vessel Akademic Karpinski, which is part of the 53rd Antarctic expedition that reached the area at the end of January added Baliasnikov. The head of the Russian Antarctic expedition Valeri Lukin said that an estimated 51 billion tons of hydrocarbons are trapped in the Antarctic continental platform, adding that the dynamics of "world prices and markets for commodities could influence a decision from the international community" regarding the exploitation of those energy resources. Lukin said that under the Antarctic Treaty there can be no territorial claims over Antarctica and since 1998 it has been declared a de-militarized zone, which means that only scientific activities can be developed, plus a 50 year moratorium on any kind of exploitation of natural resources below 60 degrees south. But according to Lukin, Article 7 which refers to the moratorium has not been ratified by all signatories of the Treaty and this has not impeded that a group of countries, including Russia, to undertake geological research programs to determine the location of hydrocarbons and minerals in Antarctica. As part of its interest in natural resources Russia is in the midst of a campaign to reopen several Antarctic bases that had been shut down in the eighties because of lack of funds, particularly Russkaya and Leningradskaya. A landing strip has been opened in Russkaya in Western Antarctica close to Mary Byrd and in the Progress station a winter settlement is under construction to lodge Russian scientists the year round. The scientific research vessel Akademic Fiodorov is doing a geophysics surveys along the sea bed and is helping to install a chain of automatic meteorological and geodesic stations from the Russian Meteorological Institute in the Antarctic coastline. Lukin added that the Progress and Novolazarevskaya stations are in the process of refurbishing and will be equipped to undertake weather, hydrographic, biologic, seismologic and geological prospecting in the Antarctic area next to the Pacific. Another Russian priority is to continue with the drilling of the perpetual ice that covers Lake Vostok which has already reached 3.600 meters. Lake Vostok, 200 kilometers long by 50 wide and 500 meters deep is one of the largest pure drinking water reservoirs in liquid state, discovered by Soviet scientists in 1957 and considered one of the world's main geographic discoveries of the XXth. century. Lake Vostok water in the heart of Antarctica is considered the purest and oldest on Earth. Samples of ice taken next to the surface of the underwater lake are 420.000 years old so the water is estimated to have been sealed and remained as such for between 500.000 and a million years.