Russia Reaches the North Pole

Russia has reached the North Pole. As reported earlier, Russia is claiming much of the Arctic Ocean. In order to back up their claims, they send an icebreaker and mini-submarines to the North Pole to conduct research to substantiate their claims to ownership of a vast swath of the Arctic Ocean stretching from its northern coasts to the North Pole. For more details, you can read reports in the Globe and Mail, the BBC and the Russian News and Information Agency. As noted in earlier postings, the Russian goal is quite clear: claim the Arctic and the potential oil and gas fields located under the ocean floor. Russia wants to be an "energy superpower" and to do this it must control the largest possible swath of resource-rich territories under the Arctic Ocean. The BBC highlights this fact in one of its online articles:

The Russians are leading a new "gold rush" in the high north, with a bold attempt to assert a claim to oil, gas and mineral rights over large parts of the Arctic Ocean up to the North Pole.

There are billions of dollars at stake and Russia is seeking to legitimize its claim to the Arctic. The question remains as to the potential environmental dangers of unfettered drilling in the Arctic and the social costs of the development. Will the people that live in the Arctic benefit from any future industrial development in the north?