IRKUTSK, July 29 – A team of Russian scientists descended to the bottom of Siberia’s Lake Baikal in two mini-submarines on Tuesday, setting a new world record for a freshwater dive. (Photo tour with RIA Novosti: Lake Baikal) News channel Vesti-24 said the submersibles, Mir-1 and Mir-2, reached a depth of 1,680 meters (5,500 feet) in the world’s deepest lake, which holds 20% of the planet’s fresh water. The ongoing expedition in what locals call the ‘Sacred Sea’ was organized by Artur Chilingarov, a Russian lawmaker who led a symbolic dive to the North Pole seabed last August, during which a Russian flag was planted on the seabed. Chilingarov earlier said the Mir dives were ‘a logical continuation of lake exploration that was begun 30 years ago with the Pisces apparatus.’ Soviet scientists in a Pisces submersible reached a depth of 1,410 meters (4,600 feet) in 1977, and examined the lake’s bed with searchlights. The lake has since been the focus of numerous Soviet, Russian and international research expeditions. Chilingarov said ‘major technical problems’ have to be overcome in deep dives into the lake, due to ‘difficult weather conditions which dictate their own special […]