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Two Vladivostok speleologists Maxim Avdeyev and Viktor Mishunin have recently participated in the expedition launched by an international Cavex team to explore the Voronya Cave, the deepest known cave in the world located in Abkhazia, Georgia's breakaway republic. The expedition set the new depth of the cave increasing it from −2,140 meters deep to a new world record of 2,170 meters.

Besides two Vladivostok speleologists, the team included sportsmen from the cities of Moscow, Kiev, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg and from the countries of Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Avdeyev and Mishunin were selected to participate in the Cavex expedition due to their strong diving skills. The Voronya Cave includes a water filled section and to deepen the cave length for another 30 meters the speleologists needed to plunge into water.

According to Avdeyev and Mishunin, the team spent 10 days in the cave and when they finally got to the open air, they found all their equipment and tents buried under the snow. It turned out that a few avalanches had fallen from the Arabika Mountain. The Voronya Cave, or Krubera-Voronia Cave, is part of the Arabika Cave System.

The height difference in the cave is currently now 2,170 meters. The same cave set the previous record for depth at 1,710 meters in 2001 by a Russian-Ukrainian team. In 2004 the penetrated depth was increased on each of the three expeditions. At that point the Ukrainian team crossed the −2000 m mark for the first time in the history of speleology. In October 2005, a new, unexplored segment was found by the CAVEX team, and the depth was confirmed as −2,140 meters.