Russian President Vladimir Putin is making an astonishing bid to grab a vast chunk of the Arctic – so he can tap its vast potential oil, gas and mineral wealth. His scientists claim an underwater ridge near the North Pole is really part of Russia’s continental shelf. One newspaper printed a map of the ‘new addition’, a triangle five times the size of Britain with twice as much oil as Saudi Arabia. The dramatic move provoked an international outcry. The U.S. and Canada expressed shock and environment campaigners said it would be a disaster. Observers say the move is typical of Putin’s muscle-flexing as he tries to increase Russian power. Under current international law, the countries ringing the Arctic – -Russia, Canada, the U.S., Norway, and Denmark (which owns Greenland) – are limited to a 200-mile economic zone around their coasts. Putin claims that an underwater Russian ridge is linked to the North Pole Enlarge the image A UN convention says none can claim jurisdiction over the Arctic seabed because the geological structure does not match the surrounding continental shelves. But Russian scientists have returned from a six-week mission on a nuclear […]