Russia diving to Arctic floor to claim oil?

About 100 scientists on the Akademik Fyodorov are looking for evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge — a 1,240 mile underwater mountain ridge that crosses the polar region and connects Russia and Greenland — is a geologic extension of Russia, and therefore can be claimed by Russia under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

President Vladimir Putin considers the expedition "very important," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the AP. "Being a unique scientific expedition it is of course supported by the president."

The Kremlin, he added, is well aware of the territorial implications of the research. "Besides being of scientific importance, of course we will wait and see the results of that expedition, whether they determine that the bottom is a continuation" of the Lomonosov Ridge, he said.

Moscow has claimed the polar region since at least the days of the Bolsheviks, and argued that the geological data backed up this claim in 2002 in an application to the U.N. committee that administers the Law of the Sea. The U.N. rejected Moscow's application, citing a lack of evidence.

Russia is expected to go back to the U.N. in 2009 with data from its recent expeditions.

Emboldened by surging oil revenues, the Kremlin has in recent years revived the Soviet-era practice of direct economic, scientific and geopolitical competition with the West. In the case of the Arctic seabed, at least, some nations seem ready to respond in kind.

Denmark's scientists hope to prove that the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of the Danish territory of Greenland, not Russia.

Thorkild Meedom of Denmark's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation said Canadian and Danish scientists on two icebreakers are now conducting mapping studies of the north polar sea.

"We're going step by step and mapping as conditions permit," Meedom said. "You have to keep in mind that it is an extremely difficult region and very hard to collect data."

Nations that border the Arctic are concerned about security as well as energy. The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard co-sponsored a symposium in Washington this month titled "The Impact of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on Naval and Maritime Operations."

And Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said earlier this month that Canada plans to spend $7 billion to build and operate up to eight Arctic patrol ships.

"In defending our nation's sovereignty, nothing is as fundamental as protecting Canada's territorial integrity" at a time of rising oil, gas and mineral prices, he said.

Russia's current push to the pole is being led by Artur Chilingarov, 68, perhaps the nation's most famous living Arctic and Antarctic explorer and deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament. He was named a Hero of the Soviet Union for leading a 1985 expedition in the Southern Ocean, in which his vessel became locked in sea ice.