T-rouble up north as Greenpeace gets booted out of Russian waters.
Greenpeace have just made a massive miscalculation of who to mess with in the Arctic, in this case Russia.
The story goes like this Greenpeace wanted to go the Northern Sea Route in Russia’s Arctic and protest, for that read, interrupt the search for oil and gas in the Arctic, the Arctic is reckoned to have 13% of the worlds undiscovered oil reserves and around 31% of the worlds undiscovered natural gas reserves.
Entry to the Northern Sea Route is by permit only, Greenpeace applied 3 times, and 3 times the Russians rejected the application, so the nobly motivated watermelons at Greenpeace decided they would ignore the lack of permit and go anyway.
A major miscalculation by Greenpeace, the old USSR might be gone, but the new Russia led by Comrade Putin is little changed from the USSR, now instead of the KGB, there are the incredibly rich oligarchs and…
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Tallbloke's Talkshop 
I passed up this story Rog for various reasons but I have done some digging.
I’ll expand the commentary when I get a mo.
Stupid is…. as stupid does, new Greenpeace motto
Reblog doesn’t like extra content so here is a large comment: –
Greenpeace knew this so they applied for permission to enter the controlled areas.
As it happens the Northern Sea Route Administration exists and is governmental/military style, a rather proper web facility exists. This includes a public access database where applications made and grant/refusal notices are available.
So far as I can see there is no favouritism, are many refusals and grants often with conditions. Greenpeace bitching about non-icebreakers getting permission is bare faced misinformation, yes it is correct but no claim of icebreaking capability was made and there are conditions on where the vessels can go.
English language home page http://asmp.morflot.ru/en/celi_funktsii/
List of refusals is here http://asmp.morflot.ru/en/otkazu/
Politely the Russians provide answers in English.
Application is for Arctic Sunrise, Netherlands, Icebreaker (max draught 4.7m), 949 tonnes.
Refusal 1: Item 38
“There is lack of information about annual surveys for vessel in the classification certificate for this year.”
Refusal 2: Item 53 Is now marked as unknown icebreaker class
“Lack of information about the ice strengthening in the classification certificate.”
Refusal 3: Item 65, now marked as icebreaker again
“Lack of information about the ice belt breadth of the vessel which is required by paragraph 24 of annex No. 1 to the rules of navigation in the water area of the Northern Sea Route.”
At this point Green arrogance was too much and off they sail.
I’m wondering whether a destination and purpose was needed too. That might be fun, deviate and I can see arrest, escort to some nice place, interrogation and dire charges laid. Sit there all winter, perhaps have the boat confiscated.
Web site has some interesting weather and conditions information too.
As far as news is concerned some of the Russian media have been watching, this is not the first stupidity. Read something about a rig crew started throwing heavy objects and hosing down Greenpeace with Arctic water, who eff’d off.
If that’s their coastguard, what’s the navy like..? 🙂
This proves what wimps, the Ruskies are.
““We asked, ’What do you mean by strict measures?’ They confirmed that what they meant by strict measures was fire.
“Preventive fire, at first.””
Whereas the “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” ensured GP wouldn’t interfere in their domain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior
Anyone thinking of fooling around in the Arctic should note that:
‘Russia is intent on transforming its Arctic coastline into a commercially viable alternative to the Suez Canal.’
‘The (Russian) Arctic is open for business’
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/the-russian-arctic-is-open-for-business/article13696054/
‘Russia is building 10 search-and-rescue stations in the Arctic, each with its own ships and aircraft. The stations will supplement the icebreakers, their on-board helicopters and numerous military bases.’
It’s heavy duty stuff.
They’ll need some more nuke powered icebreakers in a few years time.
TB: it’s a done deal.
‘Russia will float out a new-generation nuclear ice-breaker by 2017 with two more to follow in 2020 under a government program to ensure commercial shipping along the Northern Sea Route.’
http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_08_25/Russia-to-build-three-new-generation-ice-breakers-for-Northern-Sea-Route-9892/
What a pity they didn’t open fire.
Just enough to make the Greens peace themselves.
Greenpeace knows perfectly well that it’s not going to stop Russia exploring for oil and gas in the Arctic, so why did it send a beat-up 40-year-old sealing vessel masquerading as an icebreaker to confront the Russians? Because experience shows that successful publicity stunts get the Greenpeace rank-and-file reaching for their checkbooks. That’s how Greenpeace covers its $700,000 a day in operating expenses.
So as far as Greenpeace is concerned the score is Greenpeace 1, Russians 0.
That story was from August. Here is September’s update: Russia 2, Greenpeace 0.
Russia detains Greenpeace ship after Arctic protest
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/20/russia-greenpeace-idUSL5N0HG1JR20130920
Russian authorities have detained a Greenpeace ship and threatened to bring criminal charges after activists scaled Russia’s first Arctic offshore oil platform. Greenpeace said armed coastguards had forcibly boarded and seized the Arctic Sunrise on Thursday, a day after two activists were plucked from the side of the Prirazlomnaya rig, owned by the state-controlled energy giant Gazprom, and arrested.