One region alone - Yakutia - has 5 million tons scrap metal dumped in polar regions, an ugly Soviet legacy.

Company’s bulldozer was in such rush to dismantle pipes after being filmed by ecologists that it crashed a police car.

No official explanations for darkness over swathes of Yakutia amid conspiracy theories of a UFO, new weapons tests, a meteorite, or pollution from wildfires.

Map of shame: Greenpeace highlights junk and debris in dozens of sites across the 'pristine' environment.

Plans for modern Nature Theme Park and Acqua-park on site of old pulp and paper mill that spewed pollution into lake.

Toxic fuel from 21,000 ton leak reaches pristine lake, bypassing floating booms, as rivers of diesel pollution cover-up is exposed.

A favourite for glamorous pictures by Instragram fans yet visitors are warned to take extreme care.

Members of Russian Olympic surfing team suffered major loss of eyesight after training at the peninsula.

Vital for making its waters so 'pure', one theory is that rising underwater methane leaks are killing off the sponge, but is there a silver lining?

A major new Arctic clean-up expedition is poised to start work getting rid of junk and pollution blighting this vast region.