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#28 - JRL 2007-183 - JRL Home
Arctic-2007 Expedition Had Exclusively Scientific Goals - Chilingarov

BRYANSK. August 27 (Interfax) - The Arctic-2007 expedition set itself exclusively scientific goals, Artur Chilingarov, the expedition's head and a State Duma vice speaker and member of the Supreme Council of pro-Kremlin United Russia, told a press conference in Bryansk on Monday.

"This was actually an international expedition. Besides the Russian scientists, it comprised Frederik Paulsen from Sweden and Michael MacDowell from Australia. But we were happy to plant a Russian flag at an ocean depth no man had ever set foot before. This is the success of all Russians," he said.

"The fact that the expedition's results are being used for political and patriotic purposes does not embarrass me: this has always been the case in Russia, including after the famed polar explorer Ivan Papanin's expedition in the 1930s," Chilingarov said.

He acknowledged that Russian scientists would have to work hard in order to persuade the UN Commission on the Law of the Sea to accept Russia's claims to the Arctic.

Scientists took soil samples and seaweed that will substantiate political statements, Chilinagrov added.

Russia also has real technical opportunities to begin test-drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic shelf, he said.

Other countries have also been showing interest in the Arctic.