I wanted to make a quick observation on what’s been reported as Russian President Putin’s assertion of claim to vast areas of the arctic on the basis that an underwater shelf is part of Russia’s continental shelf. Putin is whistling past a graveyard. Unless trends change Russia will have difficulty retaining control of the territory it already has let alone extend it to control half of the arctic and the most that he can achieve with such claims is to give China a bigger motive to slice off a chunk of Siberia.
If I’ve got time later maybe I’ll check the Russian language press’s reaction to this story.
