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Russia’s Pole claim sparks ‘Arctic battle’ fear

Norwegian commentators have expressed alarm at Russia’s renewed claim on the North Pole, with the Aftenposten newspaper predicting a "battle for the Arctic", arguing: "The only question is how dramatic it will be”.

Russia's Pole claim sparks 'Arctic battle' fear
Unlike Russia, Denmark and Canada, Norway has no claims on the Pole. Photo: Jonathan Hayward/Scanpix
Russia on Tuesday submitted a formal claim to the UN for a 1.2m square kilometre swathe of the Arctic Ocean, including the North Pole, and clashing with Denmark’s rival claim filed last December. 
 
The Russian claim argues that the Mendeleev and Lomonosov Ridges beneath the Arctic Ocean are extensions of the Russian continental shelf. 
 
“… the claim determinating the outer borders of the continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean is based on the scientific understanding that the central Arctic underwater ridges, among them the Lomonosov, Medeleev, Alfa and Chukotskoye Heights, as well as the in between basins of Podvodnikov and Chukotskaya, have a continental character”, an offical statement, referred to by RIA Novosti, claimed. 
 
Norway is the only one of the five Arctic nations to have had its claims over part of the Arctic Ocean approved by the UN, unlike Denmark, Russia, and Canada, has made no claim over the Pole itself. 
 
But the country has nonetheless been rattled by increasing Russian activity in the region. 
 
On Tuesday, Helene Skjeggestad, leader writer for Aftenposten, Norway’s leading quality daily, pointed to the provocative, sanctions-busting visit to Svalbard by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in April, recent Russian military exercises in the Arctic, and the statement by defence minister Sergei Shoygu that he could not rule out the use of force in the Arctic. 
 
“Let there be no doubt: the Arctic is extremely important for Putin. This year alone, there have been a number of warnings about how important,” she warned. “There is going to be a battle for the Arctic. It’s just a question of when and how dramatic it gets.” 
 
However Øystein Jensen, a scientist at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, said that it was in fact a positive sign that Russia was following the UN’s formal process to determine territorial rights over the Arctic 
 
“Actually, this is a step in the right direction,” he told Aftenposten. “The Russians are showing that they are following the international rules for such things.” 
 
Denmark in December laid claim to the area around the Pole, submitting data to the UN showing that the Lomonosov shelf, a key part of the Russian claim, was an extension of Greenland. 
 
Jensen said that the UN would now start a “sober and sometimes tedious process” to evaluate the scientific basis behind each claim. 
 
Canada has also indicated that it intends to make a claim on the  area surrounding the North Pole, but has yet to make a formal submission to the UN. 
 
Russia made its first claim on the Pole in 2001, but the UN  Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UNCLCS) asked for stronger scientific evidence to back up its claims. 
 
It has since carried out research into the structures underlying the Arctic. 
 

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RUSSIA

Russia announces no New Year’s greetings for France, US, Germany

US President Joe Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be receiving New Year's greetings from Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Russia announces no New Year's greetings for France, US, Germany

As the world gears up to ring in the New Year this weekend, Putin sent congratulatory messages to the leaders of Kremlin-friendly countries including Turkey, Syria, Venezuela and China.

But Putin will not wish a happy New Year to the leaders of the United States, France and Germany, countries that have piled unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

“We currently have no contact with them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“And the president will not congratulate them given the unfriendly actions that they are taking on a continuous basis,” he added.

Putin shocked the world by sending troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.

While Kyiv’s Western allies refused to send troops to Ukraine, they have been supplying the ex-Soviet country with weapons in a show of support that has seen Moscow suffer humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.

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