Gas Station Zebra *

Dateline: Santaclausylvania (From CNN):

Russia presents vision for Arctic wealth.

CNN) -- Three years after Russian divers thrust a rust-proof flag into the seabed below the North Pole, the country is again staking its claim on the Arctic region.

An international forum held in Moscow Wednesday aimed to "present the world community with a picture of the region's future as it is seen by the Russian experts," according to Sergei Shoigu, the President of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) who is also the country's Emergencies Minister.

The Arctic contains a vast wealth of untapped oil and natural gas, according to a report released in July 2010 by the U.S. Geological Survey.

It estimated that the amount of "undiscovered, technically recoverable" oil north of the Arctic Circle was more than double the amount that had been previously found in the Arctic. It added that the Arctic contained more than three times as much undiscovered gas as oil, most of which was in the Russian Arctic.

Russia has long sought to claim rights to the waters of the Arctic Ocean off Russia, including its much-publicized expedition to plant the Russian flag on the Arctic sea floor in August 2007.

On Wednesday, it announced plans to start work soon on a new atlas of the Arctic, a task Sergei Shoigu described as requiring "extensive, serious work."
...

Terrific.

Now if only someone would get all of that pesky ice out of the way.

Oh yeah...

*(Candidly, this one I did primarily because it met the conditions of Driftglass Emergency Posting Rule #3. Specifically, does the topic;

A) Cause a title to pop into my head that is too irresistible not to use. And,

B) Provide an excuse to post something with Patrick McGoohan in it.

Yes. And yes.)