主题：【原创】国际大事件析赏 -- 颜子

Some people believe that the Russian's Arctic expedition is aimed at sending a clear signal to world powers that Russia has shrugged off its post-cold war weakness and will be aggressively pushing and defending its national interests from now on.

'The Arctic is Russian. We must prove the North Pole is an extension of the Russian coastal shelf. Of course, [the expedition] is important in terms of science, but also in terms of geopolitics as well,' Artur Chilingarov, Russia's most famous explorer leading the mission told the media.

Although Denmark and Canada have also been trying to prove their claim over the Arctic Ocean through their control over Greenland, the closest country to the North Pole, Russia's new expedition was able to provoke the most propaganda from the West.

Russian state-run TV also had a field day presenting all of the recent news regarding the expedition, following a mysterious aircraft's appearance above the Russian submarine last week. The Russian media reported the aircraft to be a NATO spy plane.

There is a lot of speculation whether the 460,000-mile territory Moscow is planning on claiming has a lot of mineral reserves or not. However, it's clear that in the energy-starving world today, the North Pole can have substantial influence on various issues around the world.

　　这几个国家对俄此次科考活动也密切关注。据俄罗斯电视台报道，一架美国间谍飞机对俄科考活动进行了密切监视。此外，美国已紧急组建一支科考队前往北极考察，两国此次科考时间如此接近，绝非偶然。

　　由于北极地区资源丰富，北冰洋周边国家的资源之争近年来呈愈演愈烈之势。２００４年，加拿大和丹麦曾因一个叫做汉斯的北极小岛发生过激烈争执。此外，挪威与俄罗斯在北极地区边缘海――巴伦支海海域划分问题上也存在争议，而俄罗斯和加拿大两国又在谁拥有从北冰洋沿岸到北极点部分地区的主权问题上存在纷争。

　　俄罗斯声称，罗蒙诺索夫海岭是西伯利亚大陆的延伸。加拿大和丹麦则宣称，罗蒙诺索夫海岭是北美大陆的延伸。在这项争夺中，加拿大所要求的面积，比阿尔伯塔省还大，其中包括富含石油的水下领土。丹麦提出的陆地和海底领土要求，比自己的国家面积还大两倍。而美国则声称，拥有北冰洋部分水下领土，其面积比加利福尼亚州还大一倍半。

　　英国媒体认为，俄罗斯宣布与北极相连新证据有其能源考虑。目前，俄天然气储量为世界之最，石油出口量仅次于沙特阿拉伯，为世界第二。俄政府此次再提罗蒙诺索夫海岭是从长远考虑，打算永远保持其能源储备世界领先的地位。不过分析人士同时指出，俄罗斯在罗蒙诺索夫海岭问题上的意图很难实现。

俄罗斯从科拉半岛到楚科奇自治州最北端的海岸线，围成了一片120万平方公里的三角海区，它相当于德国、法国和意大利面积的总和。自上世纪20年代起，这一海区在苏联的各种地图上均被标注为苏联专属经济区。苏联解体后，它又被标注为俄罗斯专属经济区。这种状况一直持续到1997年《联合国海洋法公约》缔结为止。根据该公约，俄罗斯的专属经济区被缩小到了200海里范围内。随后，其他一些国家开始对该地区提出专属经济区的要求。

据估算，北冰洋大陆架蕴藏着约100亿吨油气资源和极丰富的渔业资源，其北方海路还是从欧洲前往美洲和亚洲最短的航线，沿这一路线从北极地区向外运输石油和天然气也很便捷。