GreenPeace Activists detained
Dirtie_Frank
Posts: 1,348
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24238251
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Greenpeace activists broke the law during an Arctic oil protest, but that they are not pirates.
Coastguards have taken the 30 Greenpeace activists off their ship and detained them in the port of Murmansk.
Russia prosecutors have accused them of piracy, a charge that carries a prison term of up to 15 years in Russia.
Greenpeace says the campaigners were staging a peaceful protest, and denies they broke the law.
Mr Putin, speaking at a forum on the Arctic, said: "It is absolutely evident that they are, of course, not pirates."
But he added: "But formally they were trying to seize this platform... It is evident that those people violated international law."
Analysis
Now that President Vladimir Putin has intervened in the Greenpeace case, the stakes have actually got higher.
It will be comforting for the activists' lawyers that he has said they are "not pirates". But that fact that he said they had violated international law and had tried to "seize" the oil platform suggests they could still face criminal charges.
The Russian government may eventually decide that a trial of Greenpeace activists is not in their interests, but at the moment they are keeping up the pressure.
A spokesman for Russia's main investigating agency, the Investigative Committee, said the charges might be changed if new evidence emerges.
The spokesman, Vladimir Markin, had earlier described the protest as "an attempt to seize a drilling platform by storm".
"It's hard to believe that the so-called activists did not know that the platform is an installation with a high hazard level, and any unauthorised actions on it can lead to an accident," he said.
Ivan Blokov of Greenpeace called the accusations "a fantasy".
"We don't see any article in Russian criminal code which can be applied to the case," he said.
Economic future
The activists were towed in their ship, the Arctic Sunrise, for four days before reaching Murmansk.
On Wednesday morning, Greenpeace Russia tweeted that the activists had been detained for 48 hours and had been transferred to "different prisons in Murmansk and around".
The activists were initially taken to the Murmansk headquarters of the Investigative Committee.
The BBC's Daniel Sandford: "This is the first time that Greenpeace have found themselves at the criminal end of the piracy law"
Russia views its huge fossil fuel deposits under the Arctic as vital to its economic future, which is why it takes any threat to their exploitation very seriously, the BBC's Daniel Sandford reports from Moscow.
The campaigners on the ship are from 18 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, New Zealand, Russia, the UK and the US, Greenpeace said.
Six Britons are among those detained.
Some of their relatives told the BBC on Tuesday that they had spoken to them and they were all being well treated.
The campaigners were seized on 19 September along with their ship after two Greenpeace activists tried to climb onto a Gazprom offshore platform.
The ship was raided by armed Russian men in balaclavas who abseiled down from helicopters. It was seized in the Pechora Sea, near the rig.
Greenpeace has said that its protest against "dangerous Arctic oil drilling" was peaceful and in line with its "strong principles".
Greenpeace Russia's Vladimir Chuprov, denied on Wednesday that the Arctic Sunrise had violated a three-mile security zone around the oil platform.
Depending on the gravity of the offence, a piracy conviction in Russia can carry a fine of up to 500,000 roubles (£10,000; $15,000) as well as a jail term.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Greenpeace activists broke the law during an Arctic oil protest, but that they are not pirates.
Coastguards have taken the 30 Greenpeace activists off their ship and detained them in the port of Murmansk.
Russia prosecutors have accused them of piracy, a charge that carries a prison term of up to 15 years in Russia.
Greenpeace says the campaigners were staging a peaceful protest, and denies they broke the law.
Mr Putin, speaking at a forum on the Arctic, said: "It is absolutely evident that they are, of course, not pirates."
But he added: "But formally they were trying to seize this platform... It is evident that those people violated international law."
Analysis
Now that President Vladimir Putin has intervened in the Greenpeace case, the stakes have actually got higher.
It will be comforting for the activists' lawyers that he has said they are "not pirates". But that fact that he said they had violated international law and had tried to "seize" the oil platform suggests they could still face criminal charges.
The Russian government may eventually decide that a trial of Greenpeace activists is not in their interests, but at the moment they are keeping up the pressure.
A spokesman for Russia's main investigating agency, the Investigative Committee, said the charges might be changed if new evidence emerges.
The spokesman, Vladimir Markin, had earlier described the protest as "an attempt to seize a drilling platform by storm".
"It's hard to believe that the so-called activists did not know that the platform is an installation with a high hazard level, and any unauthorised actions on it can lead to an accident," he said.
Ivan Blokov of Greenpeace called the accusations "a fantasy".
"We don't see any article in Russian criminal code which can be applied to the case," he said.
Economic future
The activists were towed in their ship, the Arctic Sunrise, for four days before reaching Murmansk.
On Wednesday morning, Greenpeace Russia tweeted that the activists had been detained for 48 hours and had been transferred to "different prisons in Murmansk and around".
The activists were initially taken to the Murmansk headquarters of the Investigative Committee.
The BBC's Daniel Sandford: "This is the first time that Greenpeace have found themselves at the criminal end of the piracy law"
Russia views its huge fossil fuel deposits under the Arctic as vital to its economic future, which is why it takes any threat to their exploitation very seriously, the BBC's Daniel Sandford reports from Moscow.
The campaigners on the ship are from 18 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, New Zealand, Russia, the UK and the US, Greenpeace said.
Six Britons are among those detained.
Some of their relatives told the BBC on Tuesday that they had spoken to them and they were all being well treated.
The campaigners were seized on 19 September along with their ship after two Greenpeace activists tried to climb onto a Gazprom offshore platform.
The ship was raided by armed Russian men in balaclavas who abseiled down from helicopters. It was seized in the Pechora Sea, near the rig.
Greenpeace has said that its protest against "dangerous Arctic oil drilling" was peaceful and in line with its "strong principles".
Greenpeace Russia's Vladimir Chuprov, denied on Wednesday that the Arctic Sunrise had violated a three-mile security zone around the oil platform.
Depending on the gravity of the offence, a piracy conviction in Russia can carry a fine of up to 500,000 roubles (£10,000; $15,000) as well as a jail term.
96 Randall's Island II
98 CAA
00 Virginia Beach;Camden I; Jones Beach III
05 Borgata Night I; Wachovia Center
06 Letterman Show; Webcast (guy in blue shirt), Camden I; DC
08 Camden I; Camden II; DC
09 Phillie III
10 MSG II
13 Wrigley Field
16 Phillie II
98 CAA
00 Virginia Beach;Camden I; Jones Beach III
05 Borgata Night I; Wachovia Center
06 Letterman Show; Webcast (guy in blue shirt), Camden I; DC
08 Camden I; Camden II; DC
09 Phillie III
10 MSG II
13 Wrigley Field
16 Phillie II
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
I was sitting here in Kandahar and (I think) Sky news was on. They had the leader of Green Peace on saying they were scaling the platform to bring attention to the riskiest drilling ever. The drilling is going on in the Artic.
Edit: There was video of a few people with climbing gear climbing or swinging from the platform.
98 CAA
00 Virginia Beach;Camden I; Jones Beach III
05 Borgata Night I; Wachovia Center
06 Letterman Show; Webcast (guy in blue shirt), Camden I; DC
08 Camden I; Camden II; DC
09 Phillie III
10 MSG II
13 Wrigley Field
16 Phillie II
This is the equivalent of someone trying to pet a tiger at a zoo and they get their arm bit off. You should know better.
except these guys knew what they were getting themselves into ... with every press release about this incident - they further accomplish their goals ... the only thing that didn't happen likely was a banner being unfurled and a picture ... outside of that - it's what they anticipated ...
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
that won't happen
And then there is the champion of world peace, Mr. Putin ... who as far as I know does not have any personal economic interest in artic drilling, right? :think:
Speaking of Russia, whatever became of Mr. Snowden? It didn't take long for that whole story to go away.
Moscow (AFP) - Greenpeace crew members detained in Russian jails for two months over their open-sea protest against Arctic oil drilling are "close to shock" over their conditions, a rights activist said Tuesday.
The 30 detained are being held in pre-trial detention centres in the cities of Murmansk and Apatity, which are nearly 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) north of Moscow and above the Arctic Circle.
All but four of the activists are non-Russians from countries including Britain, the United States, Finland and Argentina.
Russia has jailed the activists from Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise protest ship without charge pending an investigation into alleged piracy, after several scaled a state-owned oil rig on September 18.
The activists have complained of cold cells and a lack of suitable clothing and food, said Irina Paikacheva, the head of a state-connected regional prisoners' rights watchdog.
"Many of them are in a state close to shock," she told AFP after visiting the prisoners. "They had never expected that they would face such consequences for their peaceful protest in a democratic state."
The foreign detainees are struggling to make themselves understood since virtually none of the prison staff speaks English, she said. One of the activists has consulted a psychologist
....
http://news.yahoo.com/greenpeace-crew-shock-russian-jails-111632682.html
damn ... if you think about it ... considering what they are doing to that pussy riot band ... this shouldn't be that shocking ...
I think that's what he was trying to say earlier.
Hopefully Russia is just keeping them there a few months to send a message. They are foreign citizens so at least they should have a better chance then that punk band. I'm sure no one was really prepared for life in a Russian jail in a town above the arctic circle for an extended amount of time. How long do you think the guards laughed when the one lady requested a vegan diet?
Storming onto that structure in black ski masks and such...I know it was cold but their actions were not my idea of a peaceful protest.
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
ya ... i didn't really think about the precedent with Russia at the time ...
"Compassion is the basis of all morality." --Arthur Schopenhauer
Russia charges 14 Greenpeace activists with piracy
Moscow (AFP) - Russian investigators on Wednesday charged 14 Greenpeace campaigners with piracy over an open-sea protest against Arctic oil drilling, the environmental group said, calling the move "absurd."
The charge against the activists -- most of them foreign nationals from Britain, Argentina, Finland and other countries -- dimmed hopes that 16 others detained over the protest could be indicted on a lesser charge.
Piracy by an organised group carries a punishment of between 10 and 15 years.
.....
http://news.yahoo.com/russia-charges-two-greenpeace-activists-piracy-074304594.html
Sidenote: Murmansk, the city where they are being held, is where the Red October left dock in the late Tom Clancy's first novel.
Greenpeace could not have chosen a worse time to set sail for the Russian Arctic. On Sept. 15, as the eco-activists were making their way into the Barents Sea, Russia’s main news networks were trumpeting the return of the Russian military to the northern frontier. Admiral Vladimir Korolyov, commander of the Northern Fleet, was shown on state-run television raising the Russian tricolor over a permanent military base in the Arctic, the first one Russia has opened since the fall of the Soviet Union. “We shall consider these flags to be raised here forever,” the admiral said. “This is our territory, and we shall defend it.” Three days later, Greenpeace arrived, intending to stage a protest against Arctic oil drilling. Instead they stumbled into Russia’s show of force.
For the first time in history, Russia’s entire fleet of nuclear-powered ships, led by the guided-missile cruiser Peter the Great, had been dispatched to the region. Like the military air base they had come to unveil, the flotilla’s mission was to warn away Russia’s rivals in the Arctic, primarily the U.S., Denmark, Finland, Norway and Canada. As it happened, several of the activists on the Greenpeace vessel were citizens of these very countries, while the captain of the ship, Peter Henry Willcox, is an American. So their stunt gave Russia just the opportunity it needed to underscore the message of Admiral Korolyov: Do not tread on the Russian north.
On Sept. 19, when the Greenpeace ship arrived to hang an antidrilling banner on a Russian oil rig, that message was delivered by the coast-guard forces of the FSB, the post-Soviet successor to the KGB. Ordering the Greenpeace ship to halt, the FSB began firing warning shots, first from their Kalashnikov assault rifles, then from their artillery cannons. A group of FSB agents then dropped down onto the vessel from helicopters and arrested at gunpoint all 28 activists and two journalists onboard. On Oct. 2, the admiral’s message was hammered home by Russian prosecutors, who began bringing charges of piracy against the activists. If convicted, they face up to 15 years in prison.
Vladimir Chuprov, head of the Arctic program at Greenpeace Russia, admits that the timing of the mission, coming in the middle of the nuclear flotilla’s historic patrol of the Russian north, may have been inopportune. “These [military] movements may have changed the way our mission was perceived, both in the eyes of the media and the security services,” he tells TIME. A year ago, Chuprov points out, Greenpeace staged a similar protest on exactly the same oil platform, Prirazlomnoye, which belongs to Russia’s state-controlled energy giant Gazprom. Greenpeace activists even chained themselves to the rig during last year’s protest and refused to climb down. “That time we were even more forceful, and the border guards did not react at all,” says Chuprov. Indeed, no charges were filed.
Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/10/02/russia ... z2ggmlHAyp
Agreed Greenpeace is a joke
Why do you two feel this way?
is not the picture of a peaceful protest in my mind. Black ski masks, storming a structure...there actions were a lot closer to piracy then I imagined they were upon first hearing this story.
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
JimmyV, piracy is theft. These guys are not out to steal, they're out to defend the oceans from the real thieves, the real thugs who care more about greed and power than about having a healthy planet on which to live. If our country were being attacked and we defended it, no one here would object. Well... same thing only different here.
I'm just not sure this was the best way to go about defending the planet though. But they did get their cause into the news so maybe it was.
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
I wish I knew myself, JimmyV, I really do.
I think there is a 20% chance Russia is trying to scare them and send a message, or that a savy Putin will at one point in time pardon them to help bolster his fake image to the world. And there is an 80% chance that they will speak fluent russian in the next several years.
these activists are an absolutely necessity ... the environmental movement is a failure in general however, it doesn't mean the work should stop ... ultimately, we need the radicals ... as long as no lives are hurt - i am in favour of most of their primary acts of civil disobedience ... it not only raises awareness but it's also the radicals that allow the moderates to make headway ... these actions allow other groups and organizations with a more moderate voice appear relatively open and they can get some actual change done ...
it is absolutely tragic that the environmental movement has been politicized so much that people lose sight over the fact that pretty much every environmental cause benefits the whole and really the only people that suffer from environmental sustainability are greedy assholes in $10,000 suits ...
i hope these activists will be remembered for their work and sacrifice ...