MV Arctic Sunrise

Arctic Sunrise, 2013

In September 2013, Arctic Sunrise participated in Greenpeace protests against oil drilling activities by the Russian energy company Gazprom at the Prirazlomnaya oil rig in the Pechora Sea. Greenpeace opposes oil drilling in the Arctic on the grounds that oil drilling damages the Arctic ecosystem, and that no safety plans are in place to prevent oil spills. Earlier in August 2012, Greenpeace staged similar protests against the same oil rig.[11] On 18 September, the crew of Arctic Sunrise circled the Prirazlomnaya oil rig, while three crew attempted to board the platform. In response, the Russian Coast Guard seized control of the ship and detained the activists.[12][13][14] The ship was later towed by a coast guard vessel to the Russian Arctic port of Murmansk. The Arctic Sunrise crew consisted of 30 members from 16 nationalities. The Russian government intended to charge the Greenpeace activists with piracy, which carries a maximum penalty of fifteen years of imprisonment,[11] although Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the activists are obviously "not pirates".[15] Putin distanced himself from the case and indicated that the independent Russian judiciary would continue with the investigation. On 23 October 2013 the Russian prosecution altered the charges against the activists, rescinding the piracy allegation and charging them instead with hooliganism. A conviction of hooliganism in Russia can result in costly fines and up to seven years in prison. According to Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace in the U.S. at the time, the reaction of the Russian coast guard and courts was the "stiffest response that Greenpeace has encountered from a government since the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985."[16]

The Netherlands asked the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to order Russia to release a Greenpeace ship and the activists who were on board.[17] Russia subsequently indicated that it would not participate in the tribunal since the matter was an issue of internal Russian law involving criminal acts against Russian property. Despite the non-appearance, the Tribunal granted provisional measures releasing the entire crew and the ship on a financial bond.[18][19][20]

The ship was boarded by the Russian coast guard and towed 500 miles from the Pechora Sea to the northern Russian port of Murmansk in September 2013. The 30 activists were all released from prison due to an amnesty in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Russia's post-Soviet constitution,[21][22] but the ship remained in Russian port pending a decision by the Russian investigative committee (IC) until June 2014.[23]

Russia was ordered to pay damages on 24 August 2015 to the Netherlands over its seizure.[24] The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague said the amount of damages would be decided at a later date.[24] On 18 July 2017 the International Arbitration Tribunal in The Hague ordered the Russian Federation to pay the Netherlands 5.4 million euros.[25]