By Stuart Winter ENVIRONMENT EDITOR
THE Russian bear is once again stalking the snowy wastes of the North Pole.
But he is facing competion from other nations as the race hots up to stake a claim for the region's vast deposits of oil, gas and precious metals.
As the last rays of the summer's midnight sun fall on the Pole, Tupolev TU-95 nuclear bombers cast eerie shapes across the ice fields.
Over the past week, the planet's most northerly point has become the playground for the fast-flying, turboprop bomber that Nato code-named, menacingly, The Bear.
Practice in cruise-missile firing countdowns and mid-air fuelling manouevres are, according to the Kremlin, the reason for the presence of so many long-range TU-95s and supersonic TU-22s at 0-degrees north.
But, for the international intelligence community, it is Russian activities below the polar ice cap that may have more long-term strategic impacts on global security than any high-altitude war games.
Almost 99 years after American Navy engineer Robert Edwin Peary planted the Stars and Stripes on the Pole, a Russian submarine has descended to the ocean depths, almost 13,000ft below, and planted the blue, white and red tricolour of Putin's new regime.
In Moscow, the flag -planting ceremony is being hailed as a combination of Russian derring-do and scientific excellence. Sea pressure at almost two miles below the surface is so intense, it would crush a family saloon into the size of a cornflakes box. Across the West, this Russian adventurism has been seen not only as a flexing of the old Bear's hefty paws, but also an opportunity to take part in the last great land grab in history.
Rich deposits - oil, gas, precious metals and even fish and marine organism stocks - are there to be exploited, for any nation with the technology and spirit to conquer the planet's final frontier.
Climate change and the impact of increased areas of melting Arctic pack ice are making the area all the more accessible for exploration.
Polar adventurism is also worrying conservationists. This most fragile of environments, which plays a critical role in stabilising the global climate, could be irrevocably damaged by the land grab. The WWF conservation organisation called last night for international rules to be drawn up to counter the rush for Arctic territories and resources.
"We urgently need sound international co-operation between Arctic nations to guarantee that the region's development is sustainable, " said the director of the WWF Arctic Programme, Dr Neil Hamilton.
"The political and symbolic gestures of recent expeditions asserting territorial claims and rights to unrestricted exploitation lead to nowhere, and could revive conflicts that have affected the region in the past."
With the melting of Arctic sea ice, which allows the opening of new shipping routes and also the exploration of potentially vast reserves of minerals, oil and gas, WWF says the international Law of the Sea Convention - the United Nations body that regulates these activities - is no longer adequate for the Arctic.
"We need a new approach, which includes thinking about a solid Arctic Treaty and a multilateral governance body, " Dr Hamilton added.
"This is the only way to ensure the implementation of sustainable development regimes and help the Arctic adapt to the severe impact of climate change and ultimately stabilise the world's climate."
The Arctic is already warming much faster than the rest of the world. Seaice thickness has been reduced by 40 per cent in the last 30 years, and an area equal to the the size of France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Britain combined, has vanished.
While the polar region becomes the focus for a mass land grab by the states that skirt the High Arctic, the rush is also on for other nations to stake their own territorial claims on the seabed.
Even the United Kingdom is eyeing tracts of potentially valuable ocean floor around the Falklands and Ascension Island in the South Atlantic.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is preparing papers to submit claims for territorial acquisitions under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention.
Under its somewhat arcane notions, any nation can lay claim to marine territories up to 350 miles from its shoreline, if the topography forms part of the shallow continental shelf.
In short, this has created a geographical area of more than 2.7million square miles - a land mass the size of Australia - ready for carving up by all those nations with coastlines. But time is running out. Claims have to be staked with the UN by March 13, 2009, and so far only eight have been made.
While France, Brazil and Australia are already redrawing their international boundaries, others are muscling into position.
Senior Irish official Peter Croker, outgoing chairman of the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, which examines coastal states' submissions, admitted last week: "We are clearly behind schedule. There's quite a lot at stake.
But there has been a bit of inertia."
Nobody could accuse the Russians of being slow to react.
EARLIER this month, celebrated polar scientist Artur Chilingarov was feted as a hero of Mother Russia after successfully leading an expedition to the unchartered waters below the polar ice cap.
Canada reacted by cranking up its military muscle in the Arctic, pledging to spend GBP 3billion to build and operate eight patrol ships to protect its high latitude sovereignty.
America has sent a coastguard cutter to map polar areas it can claim for itself.
In Copenhagen, a team of 40 scientists has been assembled and ordered to prove the nation's credentials by focusing on an underwater mountain range that may be part of Greenland, a Danish dependency for the past 70 years.
Repeated attempts by Moscow to claim ownership of the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,240-mile underwater mountain range that crosses the polar region, have been repeatedly turned down by the United Nations.
With the 2009 UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf approaching fast, however, the world's biggest nation may soon be about to get bigger.
Oil rigs can now scour the ocean floor for mineral deposits, geothermal energy pockets and, in a world rapidly running out of fossil fuels, priceless oil and natural gas fields. It is estimated that the Arctic could hold a quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.
For Christopher Langton, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Russian polar adventure has additional value. "We have to look at this in the context of an increasingly assertive Russian relationship with the United States, Nato and the West in general, " he said.
"Russia is displaying an increasing willingness to show its people that it is powerful again.
"Placing a flag where no one has gone before, deep under the North Pole, can be seen in the same way as placing a flag on top of Everest. And we must also remember that we are in a pre-election run-up."
RUSSIAN pride is soaring, in the shape of its squadrons of bombers engaged this weekend in some of the most showy military exercises for decades.
Besides exerting its authority in the Arctic, putting Western defence systems and fighter alerts to the test is all part of the 21st century's new Great Game, which has moved from the 19th century North West Frontier to today's North Pole.
Kremlin political analysts such as Vyacheslav Nikonov dismiss Western reaction to its recent Arctic adventure as "nothing but the latest attempt to put Russia in its place."
And Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says: "Whenever explorers reach some sort of point that no one else has explored, they plant a flag."
Unlike the Moon or Antarctica, which are both governed by treaties prohibiting territorial claims by individual nations, the sea floor remains open to any nation producing wellargued and scientifically supported claims.
Lars Kullerud, who advises developing states on such submissions at a UN foundation, admitted: "This will probably be the last big shift in ownership of territory in the history of the earth. Many countries don't realise how serious it is."
Britain could be a big player this time around, as isolated specks in the oceans, such as Ascension Island, end up having rights to vast tracts of seabed.
A Foreign Office spokesman said:
"The UK recognises that states have the right and obligation to delimit the outer limits of their continental shelf.
"Large areas of the Arctic are outside the territorial sovereignty of states and the UK is keen to see that they are managed effectively, through appropriate international regimes and treaties."
Russia's high-stakes land grab USA has sent a coast guard cutter to map possible claims in the polar region and is closely monitoring the Arctic airspace ready to react to any incursions Canada has pledged GBP 3billion to build and operate eight military vessels to guard its northern territories Denmark has assembled 40-strong team of scientists to validate Greenland's claim to the Lomonosov Ridge Russian submarines have planted their flag 2.5 miles below the polar ice as part of the Russian claim to thousands of square miles of potentially oil-rich sea-bed territory Britain's interests Small territories surrounded by areas of potentially valuable ocean floor
