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Explorer ends Russia eco-mission

Mr Vanier paid tribute to his canine crew
A French environmentalist arrived in Moscow's Red Square on Sunday with his 10 sleigh dogs at the end of an 8,000km (5,000 mile) expedition across Russia.
Nicolas Vanier's dog-hauled journey from Lake Baikal in Siberia to Moscow was the equivalent of travelling nearly a quarter of the world's circumference.

Footage from his four-month trek will be shown in 35,000 French schools as part of an ecology awareness series.

French President Jacques Chirac sent a message of congratulation.

Mr Chirac called the expedition an "example of a renewed relationship with nature and a rediscovered pioneering spirit".

My biggest thanks go to my dogs - without them I would not have been able to do this

Explorer Nicolas Vanier

"You have delivered a message of hope and courage to millions of French and Russians.

"Millions of schools have become aware, thanks to you, of the great fragility of natural spaces," Mr Chirac wrote in a message.

Mr Vanier is expected to meet the president when he returns to Paris.

Sleighs on wheels

The expedition started out from the shores of Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia and travelled at an average speed of 80-100km a day, sometimes in temperatures reaching below minus 30 Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit).

But Mr Vanier said the hardest part was not the freezing Siberian wilderness, but early spring weather in the last few days, which melted the snow and forced him to fit wheels to his sled to reach Moscow.

"My biggest thanks go to my dogs. Without them I would not have been able to do this," Mr Vanier said at a welcoming ceremony in Moscow.

He said the enterprise was aimed at showing how greatly the environment was in need of aid.

The French explorer is planning on producing a children's book and a film showing the journey from the point of view of his lead dog, Gao.