"Russia extends amnesty to include Greenpeace crewman; 29 others likely to follow him" by Andrew E. Kramer | New York Times, December 25, 2013
MOSCOW — A sweeping amnesty that is underway in Russia was extended Tuesday to a member of the crew of the Arctic Sunrise, a Greenpeace International ship seized on the open seas three months ago.
If the amnesty covers the rest of the crew as expected, it will draw to a close one of the more contentious chapters in Greenpeace’s history, in which Russian commandos boarded a ship, imprisoned the crew members, and charged them, for a time, with piracy....
Nothing about Greenpeace trespassing and boarding a Russian oil platform, 'eh?
The omission and revision mean the propaganda pre$$ can't be trusted.
Two members of the punk protest band Pussy Riot charged under the same law have gone free. A separate presidential pardon released Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, a long-imprisoned business executive who was once Russia’s wealthiest man.
Related: Putin's Pre-Olympic Public Relations Push
Neither the members of Pussy Riot nor Khodorkovsky emerged from the penal colony system, once known as the gulag, showing signs of gratitude, or even contrition.
One member of the band, Maria Alyokhina, stepped out of the penitentiary to say she would have preferred to stay than to accept an amnesty from President Vladimir Putin.
Fine with me, skank.
The amnesty, she said, had been intended only to bolster the image of Putin and Russia before the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, which start in February. Guards ejected her from the prison, she said.
(Blog editor smiled at the rejection)
The one Greenpeace activist granted amnesty so far, Anthony Perrett, a Welsh crew member, who had faced up to seven years in prison on the hooliganism charge, also struck a defiant note in a statement released through Greenpeace.
Unlike the Russian dissident figures, however, he directed it not at Russian authorities but rather the big oil companies that, he said, had been the organization’s target all along.
“It’s time to go home, it’s time to go back to Wales,” Perrett said. He described what he called an unjust imprisonment and said, “This is not over yet.”
“The Arctic is melting before our eyes and yet the oil companies are lining up to profit from its destruction,” he said. “This is why I took action, to expose them and mobilize people to demand Arctic protection. I am proud of what I did.”
Then why did you go after a Russian rig rather than BP?
Greenpeace International sent the ship to the Pechora Sea to draw attention to the potential environmental threats caused by a rush to exploit natural resources in the Arctic. The activists wanted to hang banners on a drilling platform operated by Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled energy giant. Greenpeace said its action had never been directed at the Russian state.
Except it was! Hey, they are liars when it comes to fart mist. Why would they tell the truth here?
--more--"
Also see:
Globe Makes Greenpeace With Russia
Globe Grab Bag: Greenpeace Pirates
Saturday Globe Special: Russian Sphere
I'm out of it now.
