Image: JOHN THYS (AFP)
The organization has tried to interfere in the state’s internal affairs and is engaged in anti-Russian propaganda by calling for sanctions against Russia, the Prosecutor General’s Office said on Friday. This effectively bans the further activities of Greenpeace in Russia. The Russian branch of the environmental organization then announced that it would stop working in the country.
The Attorney General’s decision made any Greenpeace activity in Russia illegal, it said. “That’s why the Russian branch of Greenpeace is forced to close.”
In a statement, Greenpeace International pointed out that, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the work of the environmental organization “poses a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and the security of the Russian Federation” and is accompanied by an attempt “to interfere in the internal affairs of the state and its economic undermining fundamentals”. It said: “Whoever portrays Greenpeace Russia in this way obviously has no idea what Greenpeace Russia has been doing for 30 years.”
Prelude to ban
The designation “undesirable” has been applied to numerous foreign organizations and groups in Russia since the introduction of this legal classification in 2015. It often serves as a precursor to a full ban by the Justice Department. In addition to Greenpeace, the public prosecutor’s office had declared Transparency International and the Sakharov Foundation as “undesirable” this year.
Russia had already initiated criminal proceedings against Greenpeace activists in 2013. The background was an attempt to board an oil rig owned by the state energy giant Gazprom in the Arctic Ocean to protest against oil production in the Arctic. In addition, environmental activists from Greenpeace tried last year to prevent a tanker from delivering Russian oil to Norway. According to the environmental organization, the activists chained themselves to the ship in protest against the Russian war in Ukraine. According to the company, the tanker was in front of the Exxon Mobile oil terminal about 70 kilometers south of Oslo.
Source: Nachrichten
