EX-RUSSIAN PREMIER EMBARKS ON A POLAR EXPEDITION








MOSCOW, March 14, 2001. /From RIA Novosti correspondent/--Ex-Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin is about to embark on a round-the-world UNESCO expedition along the polar circle. The northern expedition starts on March 16 from the town of Zapolyarny, who chairs the International Organising Committee of the event, said the ex-premier in a RIA Novosti interview.


	Chernomyrdin will join only the first part of the expedition, which starts from Zapolyarny on snow-tractors. The rest of the journey will involve dogteams. Much to Chernomyrdin's regret, he can accompany polar explorers only until the Russian-Norwegian border, where they will stop for a layover.


	Further on, the group will move along the polar circle across the northern territories of Russia, the USA /Alaska/, Canada, Denmark /Greenland/, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The group comprises physician Vladimir Rybin, dogteam driver Filipp Ardeyev and a guide chosen amidst the native northern peoples of every country the expedition crosses, and is headed by Honorary Explorer of the North and member of the Russian Geographic Society Sergei Solovyov.


	The purpose of the enterprise is to attract public and state attention to the problems of the Russian North and to enlist the government and business circles to support the economic, cultural and educational basis of the region.