Moscow Times
August 6, 2007
Ten reasons to go to the North Pole if you are a Russian leader
By Harley Balzer
Harley Balzer is a professor in the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
[DJ: As prepared for publication.]
10) If you don't have the technology to exploit the Shtokman deposits, claiming another large, ice-bound hydrocarbon source will help you learn.
9) It gets peoples' attention. There was a danger that George Bush might want to forget about Russia after President Putin caught the last fish in Kennybunkport waters.
8) If the Russians do not claim the North Pole, Hugo Chavez might beat them to it.
7) Gazprom is preparing for their IPO, and this is a way to increase their reserves without the hassle of mapping the rest of Siberia.
6) Russian scientists have finally accepted the reality of global warming. Once all the permafrost melts, the Arctic will be the only solid ground east of Ekaterinburg.
5) It's a sucker play: they don't really want the North Pole, but will scare the EU into trading a swath of the Mediterranean coastline in exchange for Russia abandoning its claim.
4) Proving that the Lomonosov ridge extends to the North Pole might give Russia the right to claim the Pole. This has opened up enormous possibilities. Turkish geologists have found that rock samples support their ownership of the Black Sea coast all the way to the Danube. Japan has established geological rights to the Northern Territories and Sakhalin. And American geologists have discovered that the Bering Sea land bridge is an extension of Alaska, supporting an American claim to everything east of the Urals.
3) A political party with "medved" as its mascot could be in trouble in the December Duma elections unless they find some more bears.
2) Russia's leaders are determined to diversify the Russian economy and build an information society. Increasing the country's supply of natural resources is the first step in this process.
1) As a result of the government's successful demographic policies, the Russian Far East and Siberia have become dangerously overpopulated. They need more territory.