Putin: Greenpeace activists ‘not pirates’ but broke law

MOSCOW, Russia – President Vladimir Putin said on September 25, Wednesday, 30 Greenpeace activists arrested by Russia were “not pirates” but had broken the law in a protest against Arctic oil exploration, as the authorities placed all the campaigners in detention.

READ: Russia accuses Greenpeace activists of piracy

On Tuesday, Russia opened a criminal probe into suspected piracy by the 4 Russian and 26 foreign Greenpeace activists, with charges carrying the maximum punishment of 15 years in prison.

Russian authorities placed the 30 activists in detention centers in and around the far northern city of Murmansk after they were moved ashore from the group’s Dutch-flagged vessel and questioned following their protest in the Barents Sea earlier this month.

Several activists were questioned on Wednesday in the presence of their lawyers, a Greenpeace representative said.

“I do not know the details of what has happened but it’s completely obvious that of course they are not pirates,” Putin told an international Arctic forum in the far northern city of Salekhard.

In his first comments on the high-profile seizure of the Greenpeace vessel, he said it was “completely obvious these people violated the norms of international law.”

Putin’s comments indicate the charges of piracy could be dropped during the investigation.

Greenpeace’s international executive director Kumi Naidoo in a statement welcomed Putin’s “recognition” that the activists were not pirates “and acted purely out of concern for the Arctic environment”.

A spokesman for the Investigative Committee said earlier Wednesday that the current charges might be changed if new evidence emerges.

Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for the Investigative Committee, the Russian equivalent of the FBI, said in a statement that all the 30 activists had been detained “as suspects.”

‘No toothbrushes’

Greenpeace had sent a team of inflatable boats to a platform of Russian state energy giant Gazprom in the Barents Sea on September 18 from the Arctic Sunrise icebreaker to protest its oil drilling in a pristine Arctic environment.

During the protest, Greenpeace hitched two activists to the side of the rig who tried to scale the platform but eventually slipped into the freezing water and were recovered by the Russian coastguard.

Russian security services then seized control of the activists’ vessel by descending onto the deck from helicopters in a commando-style raid and towed it into Murmansk.

After being taken ashore Tuesday evening for questioning, the activists were put in detention centers where suspects are held before trial, known in Russia as Investigative Isolators (SIZO).

Greenpeace said 5 activists were questioned into the early hours of Wednesday. Yevgenia Belyakova, a Greenpeace activist, said 9 more were questioned later Wednesday.

Speaking from Murmansk, Belyakova added that the activists had been moved ashore without any basic necessities like toothbrushes.

The foreign campaigners are nationals of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Denmark, the United States, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Ukraine, France, Italy, Turkey, Finland, Switzerland, Poland and Sweden.

A representative of the regional investigators in Murmansk told Agence France-Presse the high-profile case was overseen by Moscow-based colleagues.

“That means it is all very serious,” she said on condition of anonymity.

‘We did not know who they were’

The environmentalists’ detention drew immediate condemnation from Greenpeace and generated concern in the West.

Finland’s President Sauli Niinistoe raised the issue in a meeting with Putin on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP. Foreign diplomats from countries like Poland and Sweden said they were in touch with Russian authorities.

Putin sought to defend the Russian authorities’ response, saying it was not immediately clear that those storming the platform really were campaigners from Greenpeace.

“Our law enforcement agencies, our border guards did not know who was trying to seize the platform under the guise of Greenpeace,” he told the Arctic forum.

Putin acknowledged that the “fragile” Arctic environment should be handled with care but dismissed that Greenpeace protest as a PR stunt.

“A technical error could have happened and could have created a risk to the life and health of people,” he said.

Greenpeace released photos of the detained team being taken to the investigators’ offices in Murmansk in aged clunky buses, with the smiling activists flashing victory signs through the window.

The Greenpeace arrests come as Putin’s foreign and domestic policies grow ever more assertive.

Last week, Putin lambasted the West and pledged to fiercely protect Russia from foreign influence, saying Russia’s sovereignty, independence and integrity were “red lines” that could not be crossed. – Rappler.com