Russian investigators soften accusations against Greenpeace activists

Russian Investigative Committee (IC) has mitigated its accusations against 30 Greenpeace activists, the IC said Wednesday.

According to IC spokesman Vladimir Markin, investigators now accuse the crew of the Arctic Sunrise ship of hooliganism. Initially, the investigators opened a criminal case against the environmentalists under the "piracy" article of the Criminal Code.

Hooliganism invokes much softer, though still severe enough, punishment than piracy, according to the Russian laws.

The maximum punishment for hooliganism might be seven years in prison compared to 15 years for piracy.

Thirty environmentalists have been detained in mid-September and charged with piracy after they tried to board an oil platform and stage a protest against oil extraction on the Prirazlomnaya platform in the northern Pechora Sea in Russia's exclusive economic zone.

The best solution of the accident is if the Arctic Sunrise's international crew will be given the lightest punishment possible, Igor Chestin, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Russian bureau, told Xinhua.

"That would improve the image of the platform's owner, (gas monopoly) Gazprom, abroad," he said.

Earlier Wednesday, Russia formally refused to participate in the proceedings of the International Tribunal of the Law of Sea initiated by the Netherlands, whose flag the Greenpeace's vessel flies.