Theprojectwillattempt toartificiallybuild "naleds, " aRussianterm for super-thick sheets oficethat naturallyform when water flows atop a frozenriverorlake.
Born in Soviet Georgia in 1937, he received his first prison sentence in 1957 for resisting arrest and, during his third in the 1960s, became a "thief in law", a Russianterm comparable to a Mafia "godfather".
These import numbers are set to rise sharply, with Russia and Poland signing a new natural gas contract in February 2010 that will see long-term Russian gas imports rise to 11 bcm annually.