Letter from Russian social and ecological organizations to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

The Russian Federal Security Bureau Border Service has detained the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise while it was situated in international waters in the vicinity of the exclusive economic zone of the Russian Federation, and is now escorting the ship to the port of Murmansk.

The aim of the Arctic Sunrise expedition was to draw public attention to environmentally unsound drilling in the Arctic, in particular the Gazprom Neft Shell project in the Prirazlomnoe field.

It should be noted that Gazprom Neft Shell, whose draft plan has been strongly criticized by leading Russian experts in the field of oil and gas security of production in 2012, has not fulfilled its promises to establish a dialogue with civil society and to submit project materials for public discussion.

The detention of environmental activists is particularly cynical in the Year of the Environment and on the eve of the International Arctic Forum in Salekhard, the main theme of which should be the environmental security of the Arctic.

Given the extremely high social importance of environmental security in the Arctic, as well as the exclusively peaceful nature of the actions of the protesters, public organizations of Russia and the CIS urge you to release the crew of the “Arctic Sunrise” and the activists that are on it.

Signed by more then forty Russian human rights and environmental organizations. Read the original letter in Russian here.

Image: Shell. An oil platform