Memorial Society opposes renaming of Arctic Ocean
MOSCOW. July 24 (Interfax) - The head of the Memorial Society, historian and human rights activist Arseny Roginsky is skeptic about the proposal by the director of the Institute of Expert Assessments, Nikolai Pavlyuk, to rename the Arctic Ocean into the Russian Arctic Ocean.
"Unless it is a bad joke, it is a folly that has nothing to do with the history of the name," Roginsky told Interfax on Tuesday.
"In my view, this is one of unintelligent manifestations of national patriotism," Roginsky said.
"Renaming the Russian Arctic Ocean would be logical and fair. This would be fair towards the great maritime power which occupies not only the biggest territory in this water region, but also the richest shelf by mineral resources, has the biggest fleet and is leading in the research of this ocean with unique climate characteristics," the Institute's Director Nikolai Pavlyuk told Interfax earlier.