Akademik Fyodorov

The R/V "Akademik Fyodorov" ( _ru. Академик Фёдоров) is a Russian scientific diesel-electric research vessel, the flagship of the Russian polar research fleet. [http://www.ipyeaso.aari.ru/news.html] It was built in Rauma, Finland [http://polar.air.spb.ru/eng/databases/vessel/fedorov/ European Polar Consortium :: Data base :: Vessel :: Akademik Fedorov ] ] for the Soviet Union and completed on September 8 1987. It started operations on October 24 1987 in the USSR.. The ship was named after a Soviet polar explorer, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Evgeny Fyodorov, who worked on the first Soviet manned drifting ice station North Pole-1. [ [http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=1369 Герой Советского Союза Фёдоров Евгений Константинович ] ]

2007 Russian North Pole expedition

Akademik Fyodorov made news on August 1, 2007 when it sailed in the path of an icebreaker on the way to the North Pole as part of Russia's efforts to lay claim to the sea bed beneath the North Pole.

On August 2, 2007, the Akademik Fyodorov sailed with 100 scientists and researchers and two deep sea mini-submarines to the North Pole where the scientists will be dispatched to a depth of more than 13,200 feet where they will drop a metal capsule containing a Russian flag.

While the dropping of the flag is a symbolic gesture reminiscent of the United States of America's planting of an American flag on the surface of the moon, the act will not guarantee Russian rights to extract oil and gas from the sea bed.

Accordingly, scientists aboard the Akademik Fyodorov are searching for evidence that a 1240 mile underwater mountain range, the Lomonosov Ridge, which extends through the north polar region, is actually a geologic extension of Russia, thus allowing Russia to lay claim to the region under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Denmark contends that the Lomonosov Ridge is a geologic extension of Greenland, a Danish territory, whereas Canada claims it is an extension of Ellesmere Island. The Danish and Canadian governments are expected to put forth their own scientific efforts to show that the Lomonosov Ridge is not part of Russia.

Both the United States and Canada also maintain oil and gas rights within the region.

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