A Russian official says Moscow will send an expedition to the Arctic this summer to chart the country's borders.
Vladimir Sokolov, the director of Russia's upper latitude expedition, said today that the expedition -- Arctic 2010 -- will be using the latest digital and laser technology to produce a relief map of the Arctic region. Based on that map Russia will then make a claim for its territory in the Arctic.
The Arctic is believed to hold as much as 25 percent of the world's oil and gas reserves and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said in 2008 the Arctic would be Russia's key hydrocarbon reserve region in the 21st century.
In August 2007, Russian explorers planted the country's flag in the seabed 4,200 meters below the North Pole to further Moscow's Arctic claims.
compiled from agency reports