Russian Federation had previously submitted its claim to the arctic territory to the UN body in 2001; however, it was rejected due to insufficient scientific evidence.

Under global law, a country has exclusive economic rights over its continental shelf within a 200-nautical-mile (370-km) radius from its coast.

MOSCOW-Russia has submitted a revised bid for vast territories in the Arctic to the United Nations, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Canada has not yet wrapped up its final claim to areas of the Arctic Ocean now considered global waters, although it is rumoured that Ottawa’s submission will include 1.7 million square kilometres of ocean, including the North Pole.

Russia’s foreign ministry said the fresh bid is backed by scientific data.

Within the paperwork submitted to the United Nations on Monday, Russia argues that the undersea territory it seeks so as to add to its acknowledged borders does not fall underneath the 350-mile restrict as a result of the seabed and its assets are “pure elements of the continent”, the Russian Overseas Ministry stated in a press release. Russian Federation has oil drilling projects in the Kara Sea, a part of the ocean already under its an undisputed control, and Royal Dutch Shell plans to drill north of Alaska in the Chukchi Sea this summer.

This prospect has attracted other nations, including Norway, the United States, Canada and Denmark while global energy companies are planning large drilling campaigns.

Conservation groups have opposed any claims to the waters of the doughnut hole, saying they would bring harmful oil drilling and fishing.

The Russian Protection Ministry has additionally flexed its muscle over the contested Arctic riches with an enormous army train in March that deployed 40,000 troops, 50 warships and greater than 100 fight plane into and over the Barents Sea.

“We have a once-in-a-generation chance to do things differently”, the statement said. The Kremlin governs about one-sixth of the world’s land area. The country has requested that the UN recognize the claim, which it first made in 2002.