The Save the Pechora Committee decided to speak in support of Greenpeace activists and published the following announcement on its website:

“Today, October 5, 2013, is the global day of solidarity with the Greenpeace activists, detained by Russian security forces. The Save the Pechora Committee joins the action and states the following:

We, the members of the Save the Pechora Committee, with dismay and indignation are watching the fate of Greenpeace activists and the Arctic Sunrise crew captured in international waters by Russian security forces, accused in piracy and detained in Russian prison.

Greenpeace is known as an exceptionally peaceful and non-violent organization. It repeatedly came to the rescue and still comes to help us and other regional organizations trying to protect their environment from the effects of industrial development, often reckless and even criminal. Residents of the Pechora basin whose interests are represented by our organization have been experiencing the consequences of oil production carried out with huge violations of environmental legislation for four decades. Thanks to the efforts of Greenpeace international community became aware of the environmental disaster on the Colva river in the Republic of Komi in 1994, oil spills near Usinsk in 2012; a huge oil spill on the Colva river in 2013 could not be hidden; it is still succeed in protecting the the Yugud Va National Park from gold mining.

It was Greenpeace who initiated and did everything possible for the Yugud Va National Park and the Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve to be recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, Virgin Komi Forests. It is the first Russian designated natural area in this prestigious list.

There are many other weighty results. This organization bases its work on the achievements of science, international experience, support of civil society organizations and citizens in all countries and regions.

The Save the Pechora Committee as well as Greenpeace is aware of the oil production consequences for the fragile Arctic environment and the planet as a whole. Nowadays neither Russia nor any other country has the effective technology of emergency oil spill responses under conditions of the freezing Arctic seas.

In 2012, the Save the Pechora Committee and Greenpeace initiated the compellation of indigenous peoples of the North to peoples and governments of different countries to ban the oil production in the Arctic and to announce the Arctic a world natural reserve. This compellation was supported by more than 30 organizations of indigenous peoples of the North and public ecological organizations. But our demands are still neglected.

Drawing attention to the Prirazlomnaya platform, to the absence of the effective OSR strategy, outdated equipment, and other risks Greenpeace activists followed our will and the will of many other northern peoples, especially those whose habitat is placed in jeopardy by the dangerous oil production in the Arctic.

It is clear for us that the peaceful protest of Greenpeace activists on the Prirazlomnaya platform is directed at acquisition of property; it is not connected with violence or threat of violence. We believe that the charge of piracy and of any other criminal offense of Greenpeace activists, the Arctic Sunrise crew and the journalists is senseless.

We are sure that taking by force and prosecution of activists is an act of intimidation designed not only to Greenpeace but also to activists of Russian environmental organizations and citizens with environmental awareness of urban residents.

Today, in the day of solidarity with the Greenpeace activists, we call on the Russian authorities and the President of Russia for:

1. An immediate discharge of Greenpeace activists, the Arctic Sunrise crew and journalists trapped in the Pechora Sea, and the removal of the charges in piracy.

2. An imposition of a ban on all offshore oil drilling in the Arctic shelf.

3. A repeal of tax benefits for companies drilling in the Arctic.

We demand that “Gazprom Neft Shelf” LLC suspend drilling on the Prirazlomnaya platform.

We support the position of Greenpeace, and we believe that the Arctic is not a place for weapons and oil production. The Arctic should become a global natural reserve.

Original: http://7x7-journal.ru/item/32885?r=komi