17.10 11 Nobel Laureates Ask Putin to Free Greenpeaces
MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti) Eleven laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize have petitioned the Russian president, asking him Thursday to aid the release of the 30 Greenpeace activists charged with piracy in Russia.
We are writing to ask you to do all you can to ensure that the excessive charges of piracy against the 28 Greenpeace activists, freelance photographer and freelance videographer are dropped, said the letter, available on Greenpeaces website.
The signatories include South African archbishop Desmond Tutu and Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi.
The letter maintains that the activists, whom Greenpeace has dubbed the Arctic 30, were engaged in a peaceful nonviolent protest when they tried last month to scale an Arctic oil rig belonging to a subsidiary of Russian state energy giant Gazprom.
The laureates letter also repeated Greenpeaces claims that drilling for oil in the Arctic poses a major risk to the environment.
A spokesman for Vladimir Putin dismissed the letter Thursday, saying it was addressed to the wrong person.
Everyone should wait until the investigations over and the court verdict has been passed. Thats the law, Dmitry Peskov said.
Russian border guards seized the Greenpeace icebreaker, the Arctic Sunrise, last month after the oil rig standoff. All 30 people on board were taken into custody and charged with piracy, punishable with up to 15 years in prison.
Putin said shortly after the ships seizure that he did not believe the people on board to be pirates.
However, Russias Investigative Committee which is directly subordinate to Putin still charged them with piracy, a move that Peskov has called proof of the agencys independence.
The Nobel laureates were unexpectedly echoed by Paolo Scaroni, the CEO of Italys oil and gas giant Eni, Italian daily Corriere della Sera said Wednesday.
Scaroni urged Gazprom head Alexei Miller last week to back the release of the Arctic 30, who include an Italian citizen, the newspaper reported, citing Scaronis letter to his Russian colleague.
Miller had not commented on the proposal as of this articles publication. Gazprom said earlier that the oil rig targeted by Greenpeace will start drilling in the Pechora Sea by the years end.
