Russia will pay EUR 2.7 million (USD 3 million) to Greenpeace in compensation for unlawful detention of its ship Arctic Sunrise and 30 crewmembers in 2013.
This is a result of an agreement reached between Russia and the Netherlands, the environmental organization said.
The settlement comes after a lengthy legal process dating back to the boarding, seizing and detention of the Dutch-flagged ship in the exclusive economic zone of the Russian Federation.
“We commend the Dutch government for taking a strong stance in favour of freedom of expression and peaceful activism,” Daniel Simons, Senior Legal Counsel at Greenpeace International, commented.
“Although Greenpeace International was not a party to this settlement, we are gratified to see the Russian government’s agreement with a declaration confirming the substance of the international tribunal’s ruling,” Simons added.
In September 2013, Greenpeace took the action to stage a protest at the Gazprom oil platform in the Pechora region. As a result, Russian authorities arrested the ship and the activists in the Barents Sea and brought them to Murmansk.
