The ruling Prince of Monaco arrived in Moscow following his expedition to the North Pole that began on 13 April on dog-pulled sledges from the Russian tent camp of Barneo.
Prince Albert II became the first head of state to reach the earth's northernmost point.
At a meeting in the Kremlin Vladimir Putin congratulated the Prince of Monaco on the success of his Arctic expedition and expressed his belief that the Prince of Monaco's polar expedition drew the international community's attention to the environmental problems of the Arctic regions.