Greenpeace’s vessel «Arctic Sunrise» has been released after nearly nine months of detention in Murmansk, following the organization’s demonstration against Arctic drilling in the Pechora Sea last fall.
Just few weeks after it rolled out from a Korean shipyard, the “Arctic Aurora” LNG carrier is on its Arctic maiden trip from the Norwegian terminal of Melkøya to Japan.
Finnish citizen Sini Saarela was given two months of pre-trial detention by the Leninski court on Sunday, like the other 29 crew members from “Arctic Sunrise” that protested Russia’s oil-drilling in the Pechora Sea.
MURMANSK: State Duma Deputy Maxim Shingarkin proposes that all Arctic states should adopt common laws for environmental standards as the top of the world opens for oil drilling. In the mean-time, bureaucratic problems hinder cross-border oil-spill preparedness.
SALEKHARD: The participants in the 3rd International Arctic Forum were met by this year’s first blizzard when they arrived in Salekhard today. Scientists, politicians and decision makers from all Arctic countries have gathered in the town on the Arctic Circle.
The Northern Fleet’s flag ship «Petr Veliky» was escorted by no less than four nuclear-powered icebreakers on its voyage eastwards along the Northern Sea Route. At the same time a damaged tanker fully loaded with diesel fuel has been waiting for assistance for a week after it was struck by an ice floe.
DUDINKA: Joint Norwegian, Russian expedition arrived in Siberia, repeating the voyage Fridtjof Nansen made in 1913. Today, the Taimyr Peninsula is where traditional indigenous peoples life meets the severe consequences of the industry in Norilsk, Russia’s most polluted city.
DIKSON: Anastasia and Svetlana feel safe when the dogs are playing with them. Just hours before we arrived to this Russian Arctic outpost, a young polar bear tried to enter a house and attacked a man. More polar bears walk the street of Dikson as climate changes shrink the sea ice earlier in the season.
KARA SEA: Ship-owner Felix Tschudi can’t see a single vessel on the horizon as he sails through the strait between the Russian Arctic islands of Novaya Zemlya and Vaygach. No traffic boom yet along the Northern Sea Route.
