The area is potentially home to valuable deposits of oil and gas, which have become more accessible as Arctic ice has continued to melt at unprecedented rates.
According to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, each nation is entitled to an exclusive economic zone that extends 200 nautical miles into the ocean from the nation's baseline. Russia, however, is invoking a separate rule because it "can demonstrate that the continental shelf on which it sits actually extends farther than 200 miles. In such cases, the law recognizes a 350-mile limit," according to CNBC.
The United Nations rejected a similar claim by Russia in 2002, citing a lack of scientific evidence to substantiate it. This time around, Russia has pulled out all of the stops. Russian leaders claim to have sent a mini-submarine to the region to collect scientific evidence. The sub reportedly planted a small Russian flag on the sea floor beneath the North Pole, the New York Times reports.
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