Dust Off The Mig's

[ChillDoubt]

Putin tells military to increase numbers in the Arctic:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25331156

Is he expecting trouble from those crazy Canucks?

[sandyRoe]

He must see Greenpeace as a threat. Maybe he has nightmares of an armada of Rainbow Warriors upsetting the oil exploration in the north.

[ChillDoubt]

He'll despatch Greenpeace ruthlessly IMHO sandy, but not until the Winter Olympics are over.
He must be expecting an arm wrestle with the Canadian's though.

[youngmafbog]

It is clearly where they see the threat from.

[jake-the-peg]

I think the key is:

//Canada announced plans to claim the continental shelf under the North Pole.//

this is an oldfashioned land-grab by the Canadians, doubtlessly with respect to prospecting for oil and Gas and the Russians (understandably) don't see why they should just roll-over and let them get away with it

[youngmafbog]

Suspect you are right Jake. Bit at the minute just a bit of sabre rattling from the Ruskies.

[modeller]

Didn't the Russians plant a flag on the sea bed at the North Pole a few years ago ?

[ichkeria]

"Didn't the Russians plant a flag on the sea bed at the North Pole a few years ago ? "

Not exactly. It was later found to be an aquarium in a TV studio, rather embarrassingly :-)

[Hypognosis]

Hah! I stumbled right into Ichkeria's trap and actually went and Googled to find flag planting fakery stories.

Not a sausage.

Which is a pity because, otherwise, everytime someone mentioned fake moon landings you could do a 'rightbackatcha' with the fish tank flag thing.

[modeller]

The Greenpeace activists have now planted a flag and a time capsule at the pole by just drilling a hole in the ice and just lowering it. ttp://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/apr/15/activists-plant-flag-north-pole-arctic

[ichkeria]

There's a difference between the fake moon landing nonsense and the fake flagpole planting story: the former is a conspiracy theory and the latter is true

[Hypognosis]

Okay, so post us a link to your source, please, so we can evaluate it for ourselves, instead of just taking your word for it.

Sorry for fact-checking you but, to quote Sagan, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."

[ichkeria]

It was actually, now I recall, the TV report which was faked, and i can't find a link to it - you'll just have to take my word for it, as a humorous aside.
Whether the Russians planted a flag or not on the Arctic seabed, of course is largely irrelevant to the authenticity of their claim to that region. Of course whether or not the Americans landed men on the moon IS rather a key issue in the whole moon landing project.

[douglas9401]

jake-the-peg is an old school believer and I claim my five pounds. :)