Prince Albert II of Monaco was given a lecture on hydrocarbons and global warming twice.
Yesterday Prime Minister Vladimir Putin addressed the international forum "The Arctic: Territory of Dialogue" and stated that there will be no battle over the Arctic. Andrei Kolesnikov, Kommersant's special correspondent, thinks it's likely that the prime minister believes that Russia have already won it.
The international forum was held in a new building at Lomonosov Moscow State University. To immerse the delegates in the forum's atmosphere, an unfinished tent of skins, complete with a bearded Arctic researcher, was erected near the entrance. The researcher must certainly have been used to the aroma of the animal skins, which, after two weeks in this tent environment in the Arctic couldn't smell any worse than his own clothes. Nevertheless, the forum's guests, regardless of how polite they wanted to be, turned up their noses at the tent and the researcher.
Having heard that Vladimir Putin was about to arrive, the researcher, who was wearing mainly skins himself, got a tom-tom and a drumstick and started beating away. He mostly succeeded in creating the impression that construction of the new building was still, at that moment, underway. The researcher was told to calm down, though nobody was sure he could be controlled; even the researcher himself seemed unsure.
The prime minister paid little attention to the researcher, or to the exhibit set up in the foyer for that matter. The exhibit showed the history of Arctic exploration and at the same time gave forum delegates a glimpse of polar explorer Artur Chilingarov wearing black hussar moustache in the North Pole; the picture was taken thirty years ago. The famous polar explorer himself, now wearing a broad, thick gray beard, was not far from the photo. He met the prime minister in the foyer.
I asked Mr Chilingarov about his plans. He said he was preparing for ane expedition to the North Pole.
During his address, the prime minister reminded participants that they had planned to meet in April. "But the eruption of the Icelandic volcano with a name I will not even try to pronounce, changed our plans," the prime minister said as he glanced at the president of Iceland, Olafur Grimsson, who was sitting on the panel with Prince Albert II of Monaco. The latter was to become the first foreign member of the Russian Geographical Society (RGO) Board of Guardians on that day.
"I know that each of you felt the extent of our dependence on nature, the vastness of it and the fact that humankind was reminded of its humble place despite its technical progress when this eruption took place," the prime minister added.
The way the prime minister pronounced these words indicated that he also seemed to feel it.
The prime minister said that Russia is a northern country: seventy percent of its territory is located in the northern latitudes. He also touched on the charting of the Northern Sea Route as well as the stationary and drifting stations in the Arctic.
"And, finally, this country has gained the unique experience of building major cities and industrial facilities above the Arctic Circle. Quite possibly, this could not always be correct or justified from an environmental or even an economic standpoint."
The prime minister seemed to be sympathizing with Norilsk, which constantly needed saving and in which plenty of money had been invested.
Vladimir Putin raised the issue of the Arctic's spring-cleaning for the umpteenth time. "We are planning to do a serious spring-cleaning of our Arctic territories in the most direct sense of the word. I mean cleaning up the garbage that has been accumulating for decades around the cities, villages, mineral deposits, military bases, seaports, airfields, on the tundra, on the islands and in the Arctic Ocean."
"Yesterday, one of our guests, the ruling Prince of Monaco, asked me about the territory. So now I can tell you: in area it is over 1.5 million hectares, probably comparable to the Principality of Monaco," the prime minister added. Unfortunately, not exactly: the Principality of Monaco has an area of 200 hectares. And the ruling Prince suddenly blushed and shrugged his shoulders. Maybe for the first time he felt shy about his country.
The prime minister said that there would be no struggle over the Arctic, though many western experts believed to the contrary after the Russian flag was planted at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. They just planted a flag, that's all.
"Some 1.5 million hectares is much bigger than the area of the Principality of Monaco," the prince said sadly. "Meanwhile, all the events that take place in the Arctic are everybody's business! We must stand side by side!"
This was the only thing that could explain the prince's presence in the hall. Though, actually it hardly did.
At the end of the meeting Vladimir Putin took the floor again and described his dinner with Prince Albert at a restaurant called Expedition (what else?): "Yesterday I had a long conversation with the Prince of Monaco, who told me that recent studies have pointed to the presence of permafrost in Monaco. I recently visited the estuary of the Lena River, the point at which it flows into the Arctic Ocean. It's the second largest estuary in the world, 290 km wide, and I can assure you that it is impressive. Well, today it is a permafrost zone, but experts have proved that in the past, thousands of years ago, it was a region of tropical seas."
The prime minister spoke about the reasons for global climate change.
"Why is it changing?" he asked those present. "Is it changing because of human influence or because of unavoidable changes in the planet's development that humankind cannot prevent? And if this is unavoidable but human activity is also influencing the climate, what is the scale of this influence? Is it really disastrous for the planet? I don't want to say that we should give up our efforts to combat global warming, but maybe it is happening regardless of our influence? It is most likely so."
I wondered what the prime minister's point was, because he was obviously driving at something. And then Mr Putin announced:
"This brings us to practical questions, such as can alternative energy sources save us? Is the use of hydrocarbons so pernicious?"
Then everything became clear. Vladimir Putin will never give hydrocarbon fuels away for free to anybody.
Even at a scientific discussion.