Europe

Russia charges 30 with piracy over Greenpeace Arctic protest

Group arrested after environmental group stages protest at an offshore oil platform

Handout photograph issued by Greenpeace of Russian security services abseiling from a helicopter onto the deck of the Arctic Sunrise and seizing the ship at gunpoint following an attempt by five Greenpeace International activists to climb the ‘Prirazlomnaya’, an oil platform operated by Russian energy giant Gazprom, in the Pechora Sea. Photograph: Greenpeace/PA Wire
Handout photograph issued by Greenpeace of Russian security services abseiling from a helicopter onto the deck of the Arctic Sunrise and seizing the ship at gunpoint following an attempt by five Greenpeace International activists to climb the ‘Prirazlomnaya’, an oil platform operated by Russian energy giant Gazprom, in the Pechora Sea. Photograph: Greenpeace/PA Wire
Thu Oct 03 2013 - 16:21

Russia has pressed piracy charges against all 30 people arrested after the environmental group Greenpeace staged a protest at an offshore oil platform in the Arctic, federal investigators said today.

The accused could be sentenced to 15 years in prison if convicted over the protest last month, in which a Greenpeace ship approached a platform belonging to state-controlled energy firm Gazprom and two activists tried to scale the rig.

Speaking yesterday, Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev said concern for the environment did not justify breaking the law.

Russia has pressed piracy charges against all 30 people arrested after the environmental group Greenpeace staged a protest at an offshore oil platform in the Arctic. Photograph: Greenpeace/PA Wire
Russia has pressed piracy charges against all 30 people arrested after the environmental group Greenpeace staged a protest at an offshore oil platform in the Arctic. Photograph: Greenpeace/PA Wire
Greenpeace activist Faiza Oulahsen from the Netherlands is escorted at a district court in Murmansk. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters
Greenpeace activist Faiza Oulahsen from the Netherlands is escorted at a district court in Murmansk. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

"Concern for the environment must not be a cloak for illegal actions, no matter how high-minded the principles motivating participants," he said at a meeting on offshore oil extraction in the Caspian Sea in the southern city of Astrakhan.

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A court in the northern city of Murmansk, a port city north of the Arctic circle, last week ordered all 30 people who had been aboard the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise to be held in custody for two months pending further investigation.

The environmental group said the protest at the platform owned by state-controlled energy company Gazprom was peaceful and posed no threat, and that piracy charges have no merit in international or Russian law.

Prirazlomnaya, Russia’s first offshore oil rig in the Arctic, is slated to start operating by the end of the year and is expected to reach peak production of 6 million tonnes per year (120,000 barrels per day) in 2019.

Greenpeace says scientific evidence shows any oil spill from Prirazlomnaya, in the Pechora Sea, would affect more than 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of Russia’s northern coastline.

Russia, whose slowing economy is heavily reliant on income from energy exports, hopes Arctic oil and gas will help fuel future growth.

Mr Putin, who has not ruled out seeking a fourth presidential term in 2018, has described Arctic shipping and development as priorities and last month announced plans to reopen a Soviet-era military base in the region.

Former Rainbow Warrior captain Peter Willcox, an American, captained the Arctic Sunrise during the protest and was among the 30 people being held in detention in Murmansk.

President Vladimir Putin said last week that the protesters were clearly not pirates, but had violated international law.

Reuters