Greenpeace activists ignore ban on using Northern Sea Route
MOSCOW. Aug 24 (Interfax) - The Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise has left for the Kara Sea despite the ban of the administration of the Northern Sea Route to enter the area where oil is expected to be extracted, a report of the Russian office of the environmentalist organization says.
"The Greenpeace icebreaker has left for the Northern Sea Route despite the refusal of the administration to give permission for passage to the vessel because we regard the decision as an illegal attempt to suppress a peaceful protest," the report says.
"The Arctic Sunrise icebreaker today entered the Kara Sea to conduct peaceful actions against oil extraction in a conservation area," the report says.
Activists don't believe that oil can be extracted in the Arctic without environmental risks.
"Today there are no effective methods of clearing oil in ice conditions, and the home of narwhals, polar bears and walruses could be destroyed forever," coordinator of the Greenpeace Arctic campaign Christy Ferguson said.
The administration of the Northern Sea Route denied permission to the icebreaker due to the failure to produce technical information about the vessel, Interfax was told at the press service of the Russian Transportation Ministry on Wednesday.
"When the application for sailing in the area of the Northern Sea Route by the Arctic Sunrise vessel was filed, the applicant did not produce information about the width of the ice belt which served as a reason for the refusal to issue a permit for the ship's sailing in the area of the Northern Sea Route," the press service said.
Environmentalists say Greenpeace International filed three applications for a permit announcing its intentions to conduct peaceful protest actions. Twice the reason for the refusal was stated as "the absence of clarity about the ice class of the vessel" despite the produced certificate, and the third time the refusal was accounted to the fact that information about the ice strengthening of the vessel was insufficient.
