A Russian Coast guard officer is seen pointing a gun at a Greenpeace International activist as five activists attempt to climb the Prirazlomnaya.
A Russian Coast guard officer is seen pointing a gun at a Greenpeace International activist as five activists attempt to climb the Prirazlomnaya.
The 30 people arrested following a Greenpeace protest at a Russian oil rig in the Arctic have been transferred to St. Petersburg, Greenpeace International and Russian transport officials said.
A sealed wagon attached to a passenger train transported the group from the northern city of Murmansk to St. Petersburg's LadozhskyStation, the officials said.
While Russia has not given an official reason for the transfer, it comes after widespread international protests over the arrest of the 28 crew members and a Russian photographer and a British videographer who were working for Greenpeace.
St. Petersburg is a more accessible destination for the activists' lawyers and family members than Murmansk, a far-flung city north of the Arctic Circle that gets little light during its long winter.
State television said the activists were taken to three detention centres, including the notorious Kresty prison. Built in 1893, Kresty is the oldest detention centre in St. Petersburg and many political prisoners have been among its inmates.
The Russian coast guard seized the Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, on September 18 and arrested everyone on board after the environmental activists tried to scale an offshore oil rig owned by Russian state energy giant Gazprom.
A Russian Coast guard officer is seen pointing a gun at a Greenpeace International activist as five activists attempt to climb the Prirazlomnaya.
Greenpeace says it has received no official information about the piracy charges being dropped.
