Russia plants flag at the bottom of the North Pole
First submarines travel to the Arctic Ocean floor
A manned submersible planted a Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole on Thursday 2 August, and returned from a depth of over 4,000 meters with samples of water and ocean floor.
Both submarines from the USA and the former Soviet Union had been sailing under the ice of the North Pole in recent history, but the Russian submersible is the first to reach the bottom.
Russia says that the reason for the expedition was based on the theory that the Lomonosov Ridge, extending from the New Siberian Islands in the East of the Laptev Sea towards the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is a submerged geological extension of the Siberian platform and, consequently, is part of the Russian continental shelf.