Maybe he's going to plant a flag on the moon

From this page at Ingushetiya.ru, (which is in Russian), as translated by Google's translator:

In Russia:
In autumn of 2008, Vladimir Putin, will fly into space

The head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roskosmos, Anatoly Perminov made a statement, which can be understood as an allusion to the fact that this autumn will be launched spacecraft, in which the crew will traveler named Vladimir Putin.

I couldn't find anything else on this. So, either this is translated wrong, nobody took it seriously or understood it another way, or Mr. Perminov had been nipping at the fermented potato juice.

A little closer to home, though, Kremlin Inc. continues its quest to slurp up as much control of energy resources as it can. From RFE/RL:

Russian media report that Russian explorers have made a historic dive into the Arctic Ocean in two submersibles and planted a Russian flag on the seabed.

The explorers today were reported to have reached the seabed directly under the North Pole at a depth of more than 4,200 meters, and are expected to carry out scientific experiments.

The expedition, led by lawmaker Artur Chilingarov, aims to advance Russian claims to a swathe of Arctic seabed believed to be rich in oil and gas.

Under international law, Russia, Canada, Norway, the United States, and Denmark each control an economic zone in the Arctic Ocean extending 320 kilometers from their coastlines. But Russia is claiming a larger slice extending as far as the North Pole, and intends to use geologic data from the mission to support its claims.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today reiterated Moscow's argument that Russia and the North Pole are part of the same continental shelf.

The IHT adds:

That claim, which has no current legal standing, rests on a Russian assertion that the seabed under the pole, called the Lomonosov Ridge, is an extension of Russia's continental shelf, and thus is Russian territory.

Russia submitted its claim in 2001 to an international commission, which has thus far ruled that the available data is not sufficient to support it. But Russia has pressed on.
...
Five countries - Canada, Denmark, Norway Russia and the United States - have territory in the Arctic Circle and under international convention have rights to economic zones within 320 kilometers, or 200 miles, of their borders.

Several other countries seek to extend their influence there, seeing the mostly unpopulated region's potential for providing a hydrocarbon and mineral rush. The ultimate demarcation of the area, if geologists' estimates of its deposits prove true, could be a key to future national wealth and power.

At least one country with a stake in the outcome registered its immediate disapproval of the expedition. "This isn't the 15th century," Peter MacKay, Canada's foreign minister, said on CTV television. "You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say 'We're claiming this territory.'"

(Siberian Light notes, however, that Canada sorta kinda did the same thing.)

The US understandably shares Canada's concerns. As a great bar bet question, Canada is the largest exporter of oil to the US.

In today's State Dept briefing, spokesman Tom Casey fought back like a true diplomat.

MR. CASEY: Well, what I think you're referring to is that the Russians are conducting a scientific expedition in the seabed area by the North Pole. My understanding is back in 2001, they submitted to a technical body, under the Law of the Sea Convention, a claim to try and extend their continental shelf under the terms of the Law of Sea Convention, beyond the, sort of, 200 nautical miles that's generally traditional. There are some fairly technical arguments that they've made in that. I believe that in 2003, the committee determined that there wasn't sufficient material available to support that claim or to make a technical ruling on it, so the Russian expedition is designed to help conduct research in support of that claim.

One thing I would note about this, of course, is that the Russian Government is pursuing a claim under their right to do so as members of the Law of the Sea Convention. This is something that unfortunately, the United States is not in a position to do because we have yet to ratify that convention and it's one of the reasons why we are interested and supportive of having that treaty be ratified by the U.S. Senate and certainly hopeful that when Congress comes back in session, they'll give it due consideration.

But this is a long, ongoing issue for the Russian Government. It's a technical one. We certainly are skeptical about the claims made and did have an opportunity in 2002 to present a comment to this technical commission that basically called into question the claims the Russians were making. Now they have submitted additional evidence since that time and this expedition is designed to look at it as well, but again, since we're not members of the Law of the Sea convention and can't have a member on that commission, we've not yet had an opportunity to look at that technical data which is, of course, another reason why we'd like to be engaged and be fully represented on these kinds of bodies.

QUESTION: Well, wouldn't it -- I mean, they've sent a couple of mini subs down there and they've planted a metal flag -- the Russian flag. Don't you think this is -- they're making a symbolic claim? Isn't this kind of really stirring things up?

MR. CASEY: Look, you know, we cooperate regularly with the Russians on all kinds of scientific matters. I'm not sure whether they've -- you know, put a metal flag, a rubber flag, or a bed sheet on the ocean floor. Either way, it doesn't have any legal standing or effect on this claim. This is a claim that I understand that is based on their attempt to prove that certain underwater ridges really represent the outline of their continental shelf. It's an issue that's going to be decided based on those technical merits, not on any kind of particular markers laid down.

And again, this is an issue that's been going on since 2001, but I'd again point out that one of the important things to take from this is that the Russians are doing this because they're members of a treaty that allows them to do so in an international regime that sets up a process for adjudicating those claims. And we unfortunately aren't in that ballgame because we haven't ratified the treaty yet.

Russia is taking an aggresive stance. Writing at the Jamestown Foundation, Pavel Felgenhauer notes the saber rattling.

As Putin ordered, since last month the Russian military has been conducting numerous exercises in air, on land and sea. Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Kuznetsov, has left port for a short sail in the Barents Sea after another lengthy period to repair problems that have plagued the ship since it had been launched in the 1980s. The Kuznetsov air wing of Su-33 fighters is preparing to fly from the deck once again after a one-and-a-half year recess (VPK, July 25).

Last month Russian strategic bombers were flying on exercise missions to the North Pole, near Alaska, and down the coast of Norway towards Britain. Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16s were reported to have intercepted two Tu-95 "Bear" bombers on July 18, and two RAF Tornados from Britain's rapid reaction force scrambled to meet the intruders as they approached British airspace, but the Bears turned back home and avoided the Brits. The incident was reported as Britain and Russia were expelling each other’s diplomats over the Litvinenko case (AFP, July 18).
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The main military exercise of this summer will in August -- the Shanghai Cooperation Organization anti-terrorist "Peace Mission 2007" near Chelyabinsk in the Ural region. About 6,500 troops and 80 aircraft from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan will be involved. Putin and the leaders of the other five SCO member-states plan to observe the conclusion of the exercise after a summit of the SCO in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital (see EDM, July 27).

Siberian Light also noted that Russia has increased its military and intelligence spending.

There was a recent report of a possible sale of Russian jets to Iran. (Iran denies it.) And remember that late last year Russia sold Iran a Tor-M1 air defense missile system.

I've said it before. President Bush really needs to take another look into Putin's soul.