The Russian research vessel Akademik Fedorov left Arkhangelsk on Wednesday for a three-month expedition to the Arctic to ascertain the borders of Russia's continental shelf.

"The vessel's crew is reliable and comprises Russia's best specialists," said Artur Chilingarov, a Russian lawmaker and presidential envoy on Arctic and Antarctic international cooperation.

"Its research is necessary to submit a claim to the UN in several years' time to prove the shelf belongs to Russia," he added.

Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed by Russia in 1997, if a country can prove its continental shelf extends beyond the 200-mile limit, it can claim a right to more of the ocean floor.

If Russia proves that the Lomonosov Ridge and the Mendeleev Ridge are the extension of the Russian continental shelf, the country will receive the right to the additional 1.2 million square kilometers in the Arctic and to the development of huge oil and gas fields in the triangle between the Chukotka Peninsula, Murmansk and the North Pole. The adjusted Russian claim for the Arctic shelf is expected to be prepared by 2013.

The expedition will last from 70 to 90 days and will also select a site for a new drifting station, Severny Polyus-38.

ARKHANGELSK, July 28 (RIA Novosti)