I come back from a couple of days away and I find a photo of a friend of mine splashed across the top of Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace Internationals web page! He is one of the 30 people still currently (well as far as we know as news is scarce in the Russian Arctic) who has been 'detained' by the Russian authorities, the FSB (KGB by any other name) for exposing the fact that Gazprom want to drill for oil in the Arctic ocean. He could be charged with terrorism offences!
This was a swift and agressive response using guns and knives, boarding the Arctic Sunrise from a helicopter. These brave activists are representing the 4 million people around the world who signed up as Arctic Defenders to protect one of the last pristine environments in the world from us humans making a mess of it and drilling for the very stuff that is causing climate change and the melting of the ice cap in the first place. They were about to use the survival pod that we bought and paid for. The Russians howeverr thought it was a floating bomb. I suggest they look at the video Greenpeace shot of the inside of the survival pod and ask themselves if a bomb carries a plastic bucket for a toilet!
Non violence is a core value of Greenpeace and has been since its very inception in 1971. We are not terrorists - unless you are Russian and don't want Greenpeace to bear witness to what you want to do in the Arctic. But in Russia non violence is met by violence - as the Russian coastguard fired live ammunition across the bows of the Arctic Sunrise. Despite the fact that the Arctic Sunrise was in international waters at the time.
What all this does however is shine a light on what the Russians are doing up there in the Arctic. It exposes the way they act and to what lengths they will go to get oil. And that includes holding peaceful activists on their knees at gunpoint.
If you haven't already emailed the Russian Embassy please do so now! Make it clear that holding peaceful protestors who were in international waters at the time is unacceptable. And bring my friend home to his family and friends.
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