Arktika 2007

As well as dropping a titanium tube containing the Russian flag, the submersibles collected specimens of Arctic flora and fauna and apparently recorded video of the dives.

"[2] The expedition, part of the Russian program for the 2007–2008 International Polar Year, used the Akademik Fedorov research ship, with both MIR submersibles on board and the nuclear icebreaker Rossiya (Russia) led it through the Arctic ice.

Off Baltiysk, it took aboard the two MIR Deep Submergence Vehicles manufactured by the Finnish company Rauma Oceanics from Akademik Mstislav Keldysh [5] On July 22 the vessel arrived at Murmansk, and sailed for the North Pole three days later, behind the nuclear icebreaker Russia.

[9] On July 27 The icebreaker landed a group of marine biologists on the Kheysa island, the site of Russia's Krenkel observatory to conduct research for the International Polar Year.

[9] On July 29 the Akademik Fedorov approached a large ice-hole, surrounded by thick ice at 82°29′N 64°28′E / 82.483°N 64.467°E / 82.483; 64.467, 47 miles (76 km) north of Franz Josef Land.

The MIR-1's crew consisted of pilot Anatoly Sagalevich (researcher of the Oceanology Institute), Russian polar explorer Arthur Chilingarov and businessman Vladimir Gruzdev.

The MIR-2's crew comprised pilot Yevgeny Chernyaev of Russia, Australian adventurer Mike McDowell, and Swede Frederik Paulsen Jr., head of Ferring Pharmaceuticals).

[14] According to the USS Nautilus measurements, the sea depth at the North Pole in 1958 was only 4,087 metres (13,409 ft)[16][17] Russian state broadcaster Rossiya had enhanced footage of the Arktika expedition with sequences taken by MIR submersibles for the 1997 film Titanic, as an illustration of the submarines in action, in which the Finnish-built bathyscaphes had explored the wrecked liner on the Atlantic seabed.

[19] International news agency Reuters had on August 10 admitted it had wrongly captioned video it took from Russia's Rossiya Television and which it had disseminated worldwide, London's Guardian reported.

The Russians had asked to 'visit ... on their return from the Pole, we accepted their request', the log reads'[23] 'A group of a dozen officials and journalists' brought 'gifts of fresh fruit and vegetables and a few bottles of wine ... we found the meeting somewhat surreal'.

Corn salad grows very well’, even at those latitudes [but] ‘...it seems a bit premature to consider [us] a self sufficient Arctic base food wise', the Agnès B's Bruno Vienne told hydroponics advisers Les Jardins Suspendus[24] The first stage of the Arktika 2007 expedition ended on August 7, 2007, when both MIR submersibles were transferred from Akademik Fedorov aboard Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, met in Nagurskaya Bay, which is situated in the Cambridge Channel of Franz Josef Land.

[27] On August 28 the research vessel anchored by the Tiksi roadstead to perform the rotation of expedition members and left for New Siberian Islands next day.

[30] On September 22 Akademik Fedorov left for Murmansk and reached its home port, Saint Petersburg, on October 3, finishing the high latitude Arctic expedition Arktika 2007.

"[35] In reply, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters: "The aim of this expedition is not to stake Russia's claim but to show that our shelf reaches to the North Pole.