For those three or so who are interested... an update..

[Butler]

... and an interesting little bit of commentary on Russia and the Arctic Ocean. Seems like pretty straightforward reporting. First part of a CNN report from Friday:

A media officer with the border patrol in Murmansk said that none of the activists was under arrest and that the ship was being escorted to Murmansk, where crew members will be questioned about the possibility that they broke the law related to exclusive economic zones.

The Dutch have demanded that those aboard, including two Dutch nationals, be released immediately, said Friso Wijnen, a spokesman for consular affairs with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dutch officials were in contact with Russian Embassy staff in Holland, and their own embassy staffers in Moscow were in contact with Russian officials, he said.

The other detainees are from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Ukraine, Russia, France, Italy, Turkey, Finland, Switzerland, Poland and Sweden, the group said.

The ship was sailing under the Dutch flag, RIA Novosti said.

The state-run Russian news agency said that Moscow had announced it gave a note to the Dutch ambassador expressing concern about a protest Wednesday in which the activists scaled an oil rig operated by a Gazprom subsidiary to call attention to its drilling plans.

"Gazprom is using out of date kit to drill in one of the most extreme environments on the planet," the group said in a tweet on September 17. "We can't let that happen."

Russian border guards fired warning shots at the environmentalists' ship and detained two activists -- Finnish and Swiss nationals -- but returned them during Thursday's standoff, RIA Novosti said.

No official comment from the guards was available, it added.

"The violators' actions were of an aggressive and provocative nature and had the appearance of extremist activity capable of causing human deaths and other grave consequences," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website, according to RIA Novosti.


Seizure of Greenpeace ship shows Moscow

If we can avoid a brawl here he would be interesting tolook at what it takes to establish piracy doesn't there have to be an attempt to hijack or gain control of another vessel for that?


All things being fair and equal Russia needs to :

Establish that the defendants were aware of this as an established Russian Economic Zone. When was this economic zone created and was, as is the case for U.S. Economic Zones, this zone marked on publicly available charts?

Establish that the purpose of boarding the platform was to gain control of it rather than, for instance, send up usually 2 to 4 climbers to hang a banner and stay up there as long as they can before being pulled off so as to have an opportunity to bring the worlds attention to drilling practices in the Arctic Ocean. I think it could be established that this is GPs typical methodology and I will have to research it but I don't think they have ever tried to hijack or plunder any vessels.

It would seem that this event may have made some in the international political scene sit up and pay attention what Russia is up to politically and economically in the Arctic Ocean

[Celestialsailor]

You know Butler...This is just asking for it...

[Butler]

I figured as much... but then, I really am curious. They have been hanging themselves off of platforms for awhile and this is the second time for this rig so it would seem the Russians are going to it going for it big time or??
Can this be defined as piracy? The presence of so many flags amongst the crew will create certain challenges for the Russians...

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Butler

... Can this be defined as piracy? ...

I think not; according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
Article101

Definition of piracy

Piracy consists of any of the following acts:

(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:

(i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;

(ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;

(b) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;

(c) any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in subparagraph (a) or (b).

➥ UNCLOS - Table of Contents

[Butler]

Thank you Gord May! Good info as always.
I was going to write that I thought that Russia might back off... oops

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-file-pi...112317442.html

I appreciate the opportunity to post updates like this here. I am really interested in how this will play out mostly in terns of how piracy is applied in this case...

[teapot]

Hey Butler, Iain Rogers here, member of cruiser forum and second engineer of the Arctic Sunrise. Tried to pm you but couldn't. Just wanted to say thank you very much for speaking out about are detainment. It was a bit of a scary time but it looks like we will be released from Russia, hopefully in the next few days. Its been a tense time but in a way worth it because it has called a lot of attention to our cause, which is to stop drilling in the Arctic. I have been lucky enough to go there, several times on the Sunrise and it is complete madness to drill in such a harsh environment at depths similar to the deep water horizon. Thanks again mate!