New Greenpeace protest against Arctic oil

The environmental organization makes a second move against the tanker “Mikhail Ulyanov” as it enters the port of Hamburg.

Greenpeace used several lightboats as well as its “Beluga 2” ship against the Russian oil tanker as it moved towards terminal facilites in the German port of Hamburg. The protesters were stopped by the harbour police from getting close to the tanker. However, they still managed to get out their message.

“It is unresponsible to drill for oil in the Arctic”, Greenpeace spokeswoman Larisa Beumer told Zeit.de.

The action stirred a harsh reaction from Kremlin-loyal groups. “This is a new form of foreign agression against Russia”, Yelena Grishin, leader of the Russian Green Party says to Portnews.ru.

The protest against the “Mikhail Ulyanov” is the second in one year. Also in May 2014, Greenpeace activists staged a protest against the ship as it entered the Dutch port of Rotterdam. Then, 22 protesters were detained by police, but later quickly released.

In September 2013, when Greenpeace activists took on a major protest against the Prirazlomnaya drilling rig in the Pechora Sea, the reactions from law enforcement authorities were quite another. A total of 30 people were arrested and released only two months later. After nine months, also the Greenpeace vessel “Arctic Sunrise” was allowed out of the country.

See Greenpeace’s video from the protest against the “Mikhail Ulyanov” in May 2014.

Related stories from around the North:

Canada: #SavetheArctic… from Greenpeace, Blog by Heather Exner-Pirot

Germany:  Acid Arctic Ocean and Russell Brand?, Deutsche Welle’s Iceblogger

Norway: Oil, Industry and Arctic Sustainability, Deutsche Welle’s Ice-Blogger

Russia: Melting permafrost eroding Siberian coasts, Deutsche Welle’s Ice-Blogger

United States: Lego cuts ties with Shell after Greenpeace campaign, Eye on the Arctic