14 DAY TRIAL // As of this morning, several Greenpeace members have boarded a Russian drilling platform in an attempt to keep members of the crew from carrying on with their activities of extracting oil from the Russian Arctic regions.
Apparently, Greenpeace does not consider the Russian oil industry a trustworthy one, primarily because it does little to control or diminish its oil spills, and therefore it is to be held responsible for considerable damages caused to the environment.
The organization's official website reads: “Arctic Action LIVE! This morning a team of Greenpeace International activists including Executive Director of Greenpeace International, Kumi Naidoo, boarded energy giant Gazprom’s Arctic oil platform Prirazlomnaya off the northeastern coast of Russia in the Pechora Sea, halting its operations.”
Although up until now Greenpeace mainly focused on Shell and its not-very-environmentally-friendly plans for the Arctic, it seems that the organization has not lost sight of other oil companies which have their eyes set on the Northern frozen waters.
Interestingly enough, the crew on the oil platform doesn't seem to put up much of a fight against the activists.
Thus, information leaked just a few hours ago explains how, “Sini, Basil, Terry, Lars and Kumi [the Greenpeace members who took over the drilling platform] are currently safe and well, securely anchored in place to the superstructure of Gazprom’s monster Arctic drilling platform the Prirazlomnaya in the Pechora Sea.”
Furthermore, “The climbers are in great spirits, have supplies to last for an extended stay and are in a good position for future re-supplies.”
For the time being, Gazprom (i.e. the Russian company that owns this drilling platform) has issued no statements with respect to how they feel about this situation, and which measures they are to take, but we can only assume that they will not simply stand by and allow Greenpeace members to block their access to oil.
Besides this take over of the drilling platform, Greenpeace members also sent an open letter to Russian citizens, which you can read about here.