Kremlin Adviser Likens Greenpeace Piracy Charge to Gang Rape

Polar Map of Major Rail Lines in Russia, Canada and United States, With Hypothetical Additional Route Drawn In Connecting Them Across Bering Strait

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov & Henry Meyer – October 11, 2013)

President Vladimir Putin’s human rights adviser urged prosecutors to drop piracy charges against Greenpeace activists for an Arctic protest, saying it’s as stupid as accusing them of raping the oil platform they scaled.

“These charges are laughable because there isn’t the slightest justification for accusing the crew of the Arctic Sunrise of piracy,” Mikhail Fedotov said in an interview in Moscow. “They might just as well have charged them with gang rape of the platform.”

The prosecution of 28 Greenpeace activists and two journalists from 18 countries, who each face as long as 15 years in prison, is damaging Russia’s international reputation, according to Fedotov. They should be charged with minor hooliganism at the most, which carries a maximum of sentence of 15 days in jail, he said.

The case has provoked a diplomatic row as the Netherlands seeks to force Russia to release the Dutch-registered Arctic Sunrise and its crew, which were seized after two Greenpeace protesters climbed an OAO Gazprom rig Sept. 18 in the Pechora Sea. Putin is already facing criticism in Europe and the U.S. for cracking down on political opponents after extending his 13-year-rule in elections last year.

A court in the port city of Murmansk, where the 30 people are being held, today refused to free two Britons on bail, Greenpeace said by e-mail. Three other campaigners and a Russian freelance photographer failed to win release earlier this week, with further bail hearings expected next week.

Targeting Gazprom

The environmental group plans to target Gazprom (GAZP) and European companies that buy its gas to secure the activists’ release, Executive Director Kumi Naidoo said in an interview Oct. 9. The group is considering a campaign urging consumers to protest against Russia’s largest company, which supplies about a quarter of the European Union’s gas, Naidoo said.

The investigators who filed the piracy charges should be fined and the money should be used to improve Russia’s image in the world, Fedotov said.

“Those people who charged the crew of Arctic Sunrise with piracy should be made to finance two or three global tours by the Bolshoi,” Fedotov said, referring to Moscow’s leading ballet and opera company. “I’ve long called for such individuals who cause harm to the country’s reputation to be forced to pay compensation.”

Council Appeals

The Presidential Human Rights Council, which Fedotov heads, will appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the head of the Investigative Committee and maybe even Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov himself to drop the piracy charges, said Fedotov.

Putin said Sept. 25 that while the Greenpeace campaigners “clearly” aren’t pirates, they violated international law by trying to seize a drilling platform. They also alarmed officials, who didn’t know who was attempting to take over the facility, Putin said.

Russia’s Coast Guard boarded Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship in international waters on Sept. 19 and towed the vessel to Murmansk, near Finland and Norway.

The Investigative Committee said earlier this week it found drugs on the ship and accused some activists of trying to ram a Coast Guard craft, warning that more serious charges may be forthcoming. Greenpeace denied the boat was carrying narcotics and said it’s “a fantasy” that campaigners sought to hit a boat carrying border guards.

Arctic Oil

Gazprom plans to become the first Russian company to start producing oil in the Arctic offshore as soon as this year. Greenpeace activists scaled the same platform in 2012.

The captain of Arctic Sunrise, American Peter Wilcox, who’s among the 30 people detained in Murmansk, was in charge of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior when it was sunk in Auckland in 1985 by a bomb planted by the French intelligence service.

The activists include citizens of the U.S., Finland, Argentina, Switzerland, the U.K., Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Ukraine, Russia, France, Italy, Turkey, Poland and Sweden, according to Greenpeace.

Article ©2013 BLOOMBERG L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Article also appeared at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-11/kremlin-adviser-likens-greenpeace-piracy-charges-to-gang-rape.html

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