The Russian Federation has developed a national project involving the drilling and sampling of Vostok Subglacial Lake, East Antarctica. The objective is to explore this extreme icy environment, using a variety of techniques to identify the forms and levels of life that exist there. The project is funded by the Russian Federal Service ROSHYDROMET. In the 2009/2010 season, drilling operations were restarted at a depth of 3559 m via new borehole 5G-2, successfully reaching a new depth of approximately 3650 m. New accretion ice, including the inclusion-rich “thermophile-containing” horizon (around 3608 m) was again recovered and will be studied to assess the previous scenario and findings. In 2010/2011, the drill will carefully continue to deepen the borehole leaving a 10- to 15-m ice cork and will in season 2011/2012 enter the lake, allowing water to rise up dozens of meters within borehole 5G-2 and subsequently freeze. During the same or following season (2012/2013), borehole 5G-2 will be redrilled to acquire rapidly frozen lake water for complex investigations. In the following season, 2013/2014, a special set of strictly decontaminated biophysical instruments, developed at the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, will be lowered into the water body, with a battery of ocean observatory sensors, cameras, fluorimeters-spectrometers, and special water samplers on board several submersible titan modules. Such activities are in line with environmental stewardship in the exploration of unique aquatic environments under the Antarctic ice sheet.