Russian authorities have dropped piracy charges against Greenpeace activists but have kept “hooliganism” charges amid widespread public outcry

by Thomas Manning

On Wednesday October 23^rd, 2013, Russian authorities dropped piracy charges against a group of 30 Greenpeace activists whom were arrested and charged with piracy after an in the Pechora Sea in the Arctic Ocean region.

The incident in question took place on September 19^th 2013, when the Greenpeace activist boarded the Prirazlomnaya, oil platform and staged a protest against Oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean. Following the boarding of the platform, the activist were confronted by Russian authorities, specifically the Russian army, whom according to a report by the New York Times, fired warning shots and cut the cables that were attached to the ship they were on.

Following the arrest and seizure of the ship, the group of 30 activists were towed to a port in Murmansk, Russia were they were detained by Russian authorities. However, there has been mounting pressure from the international community who has expressed outrage over the jailing of the activist many of whom are from differing countries, some of which are from the United States and Canada.

The outrage from the international community has been brought about by the conditions that the activist have been kept in prison and also the charges that have been levied against them by Russian officials which originally included piracy and also what Russian authorities’ labeled as “acts of hooliganism”. However, on Wednesday October 23^rd, Russian officials dropped the charge of piracy which reduced the potential sentence if convicted from 15 years to 7 years (the charge of Hooliganism still stands).

The dropping of the charges against the Greenpeace group comes after current president Vladimir Putin, suggested last month that “those onboard were clearly not pirates” a statement which many believe influenced the dropping of piracy charge.