Cold War at North Pole?

July 31, 2007 — -- This week, Russia sent a nuclear submarine to drill a hole in the ice over the North Pole. Through this hole two mini-submarines descended three miles to the bottom of the Arctic Sea.

The purpose of this high-tech expedition was to prove that the resource-rich seabed—which holds possibly the planet's largest untapped reserves of oil and natural gas—belongs to Russia.

Warmer temperatures in the Arctic Sea are making it feasible to reach over 460,000 square miles of seabed that was previously blocked off by an impermeable layer of ice. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the area may contain a quarter of the world's oil and gas reserves.

To stake their claim to these riches, the Russians intend to plant a titanium Russian flag on the seabed.

"The Arctic is Russian," veteran explorer Artur Chilingarov told reporters last week. "We are going to be the first to plant a flag there, a Russian flag at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, at the very point of the North Pole."

Princeton University Russian specialist Gilbert Rozman sees the move as "a Russian power grab and in line with the assertive foreign policy of this year, visible in its dealings in Europe and Asia and now even in the Arctic."

Dr. Ariel Cohen, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, agrees: "Russia is not exploring the Arctic continental shelf in a cooperative mode, but in [a way] which raises hackles from other Arctic powers such as Canada, the U.S., Norway, and Denmark."

Not everyone agrees with this assessment.

Steven Pifer, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic International Studies and a former senior State Department official, doesn't view the Russian actions as overly aggressive. He told ABC News that it was natural that "the Russians are trying, in part, to enhance their position as an energy provider."

Controlling this territory would certainly secure Russia's current place as world's No. 1 energy provider. The seabed at stake is one of the last untouched reserves of hydrocarbon deposits. An added bonus for the Russians is that if the ice cap continues to melt, the area could become a commercially viable waterway as well as a valuable new source of fish.