Excellent video from CBC News showing the detention at gun point of the Greenpeace activists in their Zodiacs while the Russian Coast Guard ship pursues the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise, and then opens fire with several warning shots.
Right up to the point where the Russians open fire, Greenpeace really do not have any comprehension of where this is going, or just how much brown smelly stuff they are just about to step into.
In another video clip shot er sorry, filmed, on the bridge of the Arctic Sunrise the Captain of the Russian Coastguard ship can be clearly heard saying “if you do not stop your vessel we will use weapons“.
The response from Greenpeace is typically smug and very naive, because Greenpeace have a monopoly on deciding what is politically correct for Gaia, and more importantly how we should all live our lives.
Greenpeace:”We are here in order to make the world a better place and in response you are threatening to open fire on our ship“.
In reply the Russian Coastguard fires warning shots, the Arctic Sunrise finally stops, the Russians board the ship and tow it to Murmansk where all 30 people on board are charged with piracy.
Never one to miss an opportunity to grab some money Greenpeace immediately exploit their jailed activists as Green cash cows.
A week or so later Greenpeace finally realise that the Russians are playing hardball and admit that Russia has sent Greenpeace, and all the other Green NGOs one very clear signal about the perils of messing with Russian interests in the Arctic.
Denied bail and languishing in nasty Russian prisons that no self appointed world saving Green activist should ever have to endure, the Arctic 30 have been held in Murmansk, when all of a sudden and for no known reason they were suddenly moved to St Petersburg a week ago.
Russia is preparing to move 30 Greenpeace activists arrested over a protest against Arctic drilling from the far-north city of Murmansk to St. Petersburg, the environmental group said on Friday.
Two journalists are among the 30 detainees who have been charged with hooliganism for the 18 September protest where the activists attempted to scale Russia’s first offshore Arctic oil rig, the state owned Prirazlomnaya.
There is a popular urban legend doing the rounds right now that the Arctic 30 have been charged with hooliganism which carries a maximum of 7 years in prison, and the piracy charges have been dropped in favour of the lesser charge.
This is not the case the piracy charges remain, the hooliganism charges are additional.
Russia’s Investigative Committee pledged to downgrade the charges to the lesser charge of hooliganism, cutting the maximum jail term from 15 years to seven, after Russian president Vladimir Putin said the group were not pirates.
But Greenpeace spokesman Reece Turner says the activists appeared before the committee this week and the piracy charges remain.
“All 30 of the Arctic 30, including Australian Colin Russell, are currently charged with piracy and hooliganism,” he said.
Greenpeace says the piracy charge was “not withdrawn”, but “instead each of them was simply served with the additional charge of hooliganism”.
Greenpeace et al really should read up on how the Russian legal system works, or more accurately how the game is played with pawns in prison, then they would not keep getting caught out like this.
In yet another attempt to garner sympathy Greenpeace has released some letters from Tasmanian Green activist Colin Russell to his family:
Meanwhile Tasmanian activist Colin Russell has detailed life in a Russian prison cell in letters to his family.
Greenpeace has released letters Colin Russell has written to his wife Christine and daughter Madeline, as pressure grows on the Federal Government to secure his release.
Mr Russell describes being in a tiny jail cell.
He says the first hint of a brutal Russian winter has arrived, with snow blowing into his cell.
Mr Russell says everything is made to be uncomfortable, including his bed which has iron bars that cut into him.
You would be forgiven for thinking that Russell would be happy with his lot, snow blowing in his cell means little or no central heating which in turn means a very small carbon footprint, and as a member of Greenpeace, Russell naturally has an irrational fear of CO2.
There is also a valuable lesson for Russell to learn from all this, he and his Greenpeace accomplices only support very expensive Green renewable energy, snow blowing in his cell is not that far removed from pensioners and the poor who cannot afford to heat their homes because of the every increasing cost of Green subsidies on energy bills.
As usual the minute these people are forced to practice what they preach they start whining, little wonder then that Green is the most popular synonym for hypocrite.
The problem is the Russians are not done yet with additional charges:
Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the investigative team, said some of the activists would also face charges of resisting law officers, which carries a maximum five-year term.
“A few boats approached the platform, and with the aid of special equipment, they tried to climb up the platform. They completely ignored the authorities’ orders. Furthermore, if you recall, they rammed the coastguard ship,” Markin said in an interview on the news site gazeta.ru.
In the west multiple prison sentences are usually served concurrently, however if you Google consecutive prison sentencing in russia you find this:
Lawless courts had long been a bane of Russia –especially its businesspeople. But with Khodorkovsky’s arrest in 2003, the state became the biggest corporate raider of all. Since then, both political expression and the business climate in Russia have been stifled. The Khodorkovsky verdict locked in the Russian court system as a tool of political suppression—just as it was under the czars and the commissars.
Khodorkovsky’s jail sentence has become a tragic mistake for Russia. It has damaged the country’s image as well as its business climate. The two consecutive prison terms—a common practice under Stalin—resembles a vendetta more than a well-thought-through carriage of justice.
And that is the way the Russian legal system has always worked, and more to the point still does.
Filed under: Anthropogenic Global Warming, Church Of Climatology, Climate Change, Eco Pirate, Fear, Global Warming, Green Environmental Holocaust, Green Lies Tagged: Arctic 30, Greenpeace, Russia, Russian Coast Guard
