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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to the Arctic where he called to take urgent steps to preserve the polar bear population. Putin visited the Alexandra Land, one of the islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic Ocean and along with the Russian scientists mounted a special collar with a tracking device on a huge polar bear, which was put to sleep shortly before. “The polar bear is in danger, there are only 25000 of them left in the world and of course the main problem is environmental, the shrinking of the ice cap,” said Putin after weighing the bear. Apart from global warming, the polar bear population in the Arctic also has another deadly enemy – pollution. Thousands of rusty barrels with fuel and lubricants were brought to Alexandra land for the needs of the Soviet military in the 1960s, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union the barrels were abandoned there because of the expense of taking them away. The rusty barrels started to leak and poison the land around them. “According to various estimations from 40.000 to 60.000 thousand tonnes of fuel and lubricants and the level of pollution is almost six times higher than normal here. Now we need to organise a major cleanup of the Arctic,” said Putin during his visit to Alexandra Land. The cleanup operation should be initiated by the state, but private investors should take part in it too, said Putin. Several endangered species, including the polar bear, live in the archipelago, scientists say . added by: ctv