Eight More Greenpeace Members Arrested in Russia

Eight More Greenpeace Members Arrested in Russia

Russian authorities have arrested eight more Greenpeace activists.

A total of thirty people have now been arrested, after two Greenpeace members climbed a Gazprom-operated offshore platform in the Pechora Sea earlier this month.

The activists will, according to information provided by Greenpeace, be detained for two months, pending a piracy investigation.

The organization’s Arctic Sunrise ship has also been detained by the Russian authorities.

To remind, two Greenpeace International activists climbed the Gazprom oil rig Prirazlomnaya, in the remote Pechora sea, in the Russian Arctic, protesting against Gazprom’s Arctic drilling plans.

Russian president Vladimir Putin, commenting on the case last week, said that the activists had broken the law, but should not face piracy charges.

“It is absolutely evident that they are, of course, not pirates,” Reuters reported Putin as saying.

Gazprom plans to start production from the Prirazlomnaya platform in the first quarter of 2014, and according to Greenpeace, these actions by the Russian oil and gas giant will raise the risk of an oil spill in an area that contains three nature reserves protected by Russian law. Greenpeace occupied the same platform in August 2012. 

[mappress]
Offshore Energy Today Staff, September 30, 2013