nzherald.co.nz
Saturday August 04, 2007
10:11AM NZT
World Story

The new cold war - under the North Pole

5:00AM Saturday August 04, 2007By Angela Gregory

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Russia has started a bizarre colonial-style scramble after a submarine planted a flag under the North Pole to symbolise the Kremlin's claim to the oil-rich Arctic.

Now, the New Zealand company that partly conceived the project says the controversy threatens to overshadow the success of the expedition.

Deep Ocean Expeditions came up with the idea to dive to the seabed at the North Pole nine years ago and brought on Russian investors about a year ago.

New Zealander Peter Batson, the company's project scientist, told the Weekend Herald from the Arctic Sea last night that the first successful dive to the ocean floor at the geographic North Pole had been an amazing trip.

He was aware of controversy over concerns the Russian flag was a symbolic bid to stake a claim to a region thought to contain vast reserves of oil and gas.