Putin says Arctic activists ‘not pirates’ but broke law

President Vladimir Putin said on 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.

On Tuesday, Russia opened a criminal probe into suspected piracy by the four 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 centres 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 today 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 today 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.’ 

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 yesterday evening for questioning, the activists were put in detention centres where suspects are held before trial, known in Russia as Investigative Isolators (SIZO).

Greenpeace said five activists were questioned into the early hours today. Yevgenia Belyakova, a Greenpeace activist, said nine more were questioned later today.

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