For thirty years, Greenpeace has used “non-violent direct action” in their environmental protests.  In recent years, Greenpeace activists have boarded drilling platforms to disrupt operations. In most cases, the protesters involved were arrested, made to pay fines for trespass and were then let go.  The Greenpeace activists who boarded a Russian drilling rig last week, however, may be facing much more serious charges.

Last Thursday, two Greenpeace activists operating from the Greenpeace Netherlands-registered icebreaker, Arctic Sunrise, attempted to to climb onto the Prirazlomnaya platform, an offshore drilling platform in the Arctic owned by the state-controlled gas company Gazprom.  In response the Russian board the Greenpeace ship, arrested those aboard and escorted the vessel to an anchorage outside Murmansk. The Russian authorities have now announced that they intend to charge those involved in the action with piracy on the high seas.

Russia to File Piracy Charges Against Greenpeace

““When a foreign vessel full of electronic technical equipment of unknown purpose and a group of people calling themselves members of an environmental rights organization try nothing less than to take a drilling platform by storm, logical doubts arise about their intentions,” Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said in a statement.

He said the activists posed a danger to the work of the oil platform. “Such activities not only infringe on the sovereignty of a state, but might pose a threat to the environmental security of the whole region,” Markin said.

Greenpeace insisted under international law Russia had no right to board its ship and has no grounds to charge its activists with piracy.

Thanks to Phil Leon for contributing to this post.