Kremlin official describes Greenpeace activists' actions as radical

Kremlin Administration Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov believes that Greenpeace activists acted too radically when they attempted to get onto a drilling rig. It is a well known organization, but I think they act too radically, Ivanov told reporters in Stockholm, where he is on a working visit. The Kremlin official believes it is piracy in the Somali style. They used hooks as Somali pirates, he noted. As was reported on Friday, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) was preparing evidence for investigators to open a criminal case over the Greenpeace activists' attempt to board a Russian drilling platform in Arctic waters. Papers are being prepared charting events on September 18 and 19 when the Arctic Sunrise ship flying a Dutch flag ignored signals and warning fire from a border patrol vessel and manoeuvred round the Prirazlomnaya drilling rig seeking to mount a boarding party. The captain of the ship refused to obey orders, demanded the return of two people previously detained and refused to allow examination of his ship. Security service personnel say border guards did not use weapons when boarding the Arctic Sunrise from a Mi-8 helicopter and that no-one was injured in the operation. Twenty-seven people, including four Russian citizens, were aboard the vessel, where electronic equipment, photographic and video recording devices were found before it was towed to the north Russian port of Murmansk for further investigation. On September 18, Dutch Ambassador Ronald Keller was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry and handed a note in connection with the incident.