Languages

Polar bears attack Statoil in Moscow

"Polar bears" of Greenpeace at the entrance of Statoil office in Moscow. Photo: Greenpeace.

Three Greenpeace activists in polar bear consumes were arrested during their street protest against Statoil and Rosneft plans to drill in the Russian Arctic.

Location

The “bears” with posters “Arctic values more than oil” and “We are hostages of your greed” were chained to oil barrels. They were drumming the barrels, rattling the chains, and demanding the oil and gas people to leave their own Arctic. After an hour the police arrived.

Representatives of Statoil refused to go out from the office, but invited the bears inside. Greenpeace activists forwarded a letter with demand not to drill in the Russian Arctic to Statoil’s head of public relations office Svein Olsen.

The police officers asked the “bears” to stop the action, as it wasn’t officially agreed on. It took the officers two hours to cut the chains and get the activists to police department.

“The “bears” left the court room without any accusations, as a judge decided police officers mistreated their action”, the official website of Greenpeace says.

The environmental organization is concerned about cooperation of Norwegian Statoil with Russian Rosneft company to drill in the Arctic waters. According to Greenpeace, the Russian company has already turned many areas of Siberia into zones of ecological catastrophe and damaged habitats of local population.

Greenpeace has collected more than 40,000 signatures to the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg urging him to prevent Norwegian drilling in the Russian Arctic.