MOSCOW — Defying complaints from international human rights and environmental organizations, as well as the apparent wishes of President Vladimir V. Putin, Russian prosecutors brought piracy charges on Wednesday against 13 Greenpeace activists and a journalist who covered their protest.
The activists and the journalist were among 30 people aboard a Greenpeace International ship, the Arctic Sunrise, that was seized by helicopter-borne Russian border guards in the Arctic Ocean, off Novaya Zemlya, after members of the crew attempted to board a Russian offshore oil platform using inflatable boats. The activists said their actions were meant to call attention to the environmental hazards of drilling in icy northern waters.
The lodging of such serious charges in the Greenpeace case illustrates how far apart the Russian government remains from Western governments and nongovernmental organizations on such issues as freedom of speech and civil disobedience. Russian courts ignored a similar international outcry last year when they sentenced members of the musical group Pussy Riot to two years in prison for protesting in a church.
The piracy charges carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. It was not clear how many of the 28 members of the crew and the two journalists who were aboard the Arctic Sunrise would ultimately be charged; all of them have been detained for investigation.
The court in Murmansk handling the matter adjourned Wednesday with the cases of the ship’s US captain, Peter Willcox, and a number of others still pending. Lawyers for Greenpeace said the hearing could continue with more charges lodged on Thursday.