#12
US rescues Russian politician stuck at South Pole
By Graeme Peters

WELLINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The United States came to the rescue of a high-ranking Russian politician's tour party stranded at the South Pole by an aircraft breakdown, the U.S. Antarctic Program said on Tuesday.

Artur Chilingarov, the deputy chairman of the State Duma and a noted polar explorer in Russia, led a group commemorating the 60th anniversary of the first Russian flight to the South Pole last week, a Russian embassy official said.

After getting passports stamped and touring the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole base on January 8, the group of 14 Russian, United States, Ukrainian, French, Swedish, and Swiss nationals could not leave, said John Sherve, New Zealand manager of Raytheon Technical Services, the support company for the U.S. Antarctic Program.

"They went back to their plane, tried to start it and it wouldn't start," Sherve told Reuters in a telephone interview.

A day later the Russian members of the group left the pole in a U.S. ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules, with the seven others flown out by Adventure Network International, a private tour company operating trips to the South Pole.

Sherve said that the U.S. initially thought that the trip was a Russian government venture, so agreed to carry seven Russians including Chilingarov back to Christchurch, the New Zealand base of the U.S. Antarctic Program.

"There was some confusion about whether it was a private or government venture, and the Russian embassy in Washington clarified that it was indeed a private venture," Sherve said.

The U.S. government would bill the Russian government $80,000 for the rescue of Chilingarov, he said.

The stranded Russian plane -- an Antonov-3 single-engine biplane airlifted to the Antarctic coast, about 1,200 km from the South Pole, in a giant Russian cargo plane -- is still at the U.S. base of about 200 researchers and staff.

Russia's ambassador in Wellington, Gennadiy Shabannikov, said the re-enactment included raising the Russian flag at the South Pole followed by a congratulatory phone call from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Shabannikov, who greeted Chilingarov when he arrived in Christchurch late last week, said the trip was a partnership between the Russian government and the private sector.

He did did not know at this stage what would happen to the plane, but said a bill would not be a surprise.

"If they decide this way (to bill the Russian government), probably they have grounds for that, but it's up to them to decide," Shabannikov