Money, they say, is the root of all evil, but these days a lot of evil is being committed in the name of oil. Consider Russia, an oil-rich nation bent on taking over the Arctic.
Its oil income, nefariously out of private hands and back under government control, is funding a new militarism, and that, in turn, is being used to acquire even more oil wealth.
Recent reports say Russia is ready to start production of a new submarine-based intercontinental ballistic missile that will form the core of the country’s seaborne nuclear arsenal.
According to the commander of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Masorin, a recent successful test of the Bulava-M missile has paved the way for the start of production.
Missile system
“After the results of this, a decision was made to start [the] creation of the military base for the system, in other words, the serial production of parts for this new missile system,” Masorin said.
The Russian navy said in June that a Bulava missile launched from a submarine in the White Sea hit its target 6,700 km away on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Pacific opposite Alaska.
That must be comforting news for Alaskans and others along the way such as the Japanese. And what does it mean? Well, it seems that the Russians want a new era aimed at dominating the rest of the world through military power.
If you doubt that, then remember that Russia recently sent two minisubmarines to the Arctic Ocean floor under the North Pole where they planted a titanium capsule containing the nation’s flag.
The move symbolically claims almost half of the planet’s northern polar region for the Kremlin. But it could be much more than mere symbolism.
Claiming the Arctic
In a perilous project mixing science, exploration, and the scramble for potential oil and gas fields, crews of the submarines engaged in what Russian authorities called the first dive to the ocean floor at Earth’s northernmost point.
Russian scientists were to map part of the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,240-mile underwater mountain range that crosses the polar region. The ridge was discovered by the Soviets in 1948 and named after a famed 18th Century Russian scientist, Mikhail Lomonosov.
In December 2001, Moscow claimed the ridge was an extension of the Eurasian continent and therefore part of Russia’s continental shelf under international law. The United Nations rejected Moscow’s application, citing lack of evidence, but Russia plans to resubmit it in 2009.
If recognized, the claim would give Russia control of more than 1.2 million sq km, representing almost half of the arctic seabed. Little is known about the ocean floor near the pole, which might overlie vast oil and gas deposits.
And if not recognized? Well, why do you think the Russians are investing so much of their new-found oil wealth in submarine-launched missile systems?
