Russia refused arbitration proceedings on the Arctic Sunrise case

Russia refuses to recognize the authority of the arbitration on the Arctic Sunrise case and is not obliged to attend the proceedings on interim measures concerning the Greenpeace environmentalists in the International tribunal on the law of the sea. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia said so Wednesday, adding that “Russia remains open to settling the dispute”.

The Netherlands authorities initiated on October 4 proceedings at the UN International tribunal on the law of the sea concerning the incident of the Greenpeace activists accused of piracy by the Russian authorities for their actions at the Prirazlomnaya oil rig. The Netherlands, whose flag the environmentalists’ icebreaker Arctic Sunrise, which is currently at the Murmansk sea port, was flying, demanded that Russia return the ship and liberate the crew. Maritime law specialists promptly stated that Russia had slim chances to prove its position.

On October 21, the Netherlands, acting within the same proceedings, requested the Tribunal to award “interim measures” on the basis of clause 5 of Article 290 of the UN Convention on the law of the sea of 1982. That Article deals with the measures of protection of a party to a dispute taken prior to the consideration of the case on its merits during arbitration proceedings. The Dutch party requested the Tribunal to award the liberation of the ship and the crew and to order the Russian party to suspend all procedural actions in connection with said incident.

Moscow was not satisfied with this. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia stated Wednesday: “The Russian side informed the Netherlands and the International Tribunal on the law of the sea that it does not recognize the arbitration proceedings on the Arctic Sunrise case and that is has no intention to participate in the tribunal on the matter of interim measures. Nonetheless, Russia remains open to settling the dispute”.

The Smolenskaya Square reminded that, when Russia ratified the UN Convention on the law of the sea in 1997, our country refused to adopt refused to adopt the Convention procedures of settlement of disputes on exercising sovereign rights and jurisdiction that lead to binding decisions.

The diplomatic institution added: “That is precisely the jurisdiction that we exercise in the Arctic Sunrise situation. The Greenpeace activists’ actions at the Prirazlomnaya oil platform on September 18 violated Russian laws on exclusive economic zones and the continental shelf. A criminal investigation into the incident is currently being conducted”.

According to the information of the Investigation Committee of Russia (ICR), the environmentalists intended to capture the platform, and the incident was thus qualified under Article 227 of the PCRF (“Piracy”). The activists themselves claim that they were only going to put a banner on the rig as protest against oil extraction in the Arctic.

Evgeny Zhilin, Partner of the Law Firm "YUST": “Russia’s decision to not recognize the competence of the International Tribunal on the law of the sea regarding the Arctic Sunrise case is completely justified. Russia exercises sovereign rights over the Prirazlomnaya rig, and any and all cases connected in any way to the issues of its security fall within the Russian jurisdiction. The provisions of the UN Convention on the law of the sea of 1982, in consideration of the declarations made at the ratification, provide for such possibility. Still, such position will hardly satisfy the Netherlands as the claimant. Moreover, the Tribunal itself finally decides on the matter of its competence in concrete cases. The Tribunal will likely continue the proceedings, and if Russia refuses to participate, the probability of a ruling against Russia will increase. Russia is at a dead end here: chances are that participation as well as non-participation in the arbitration proceedings will produce the same result, while the position of refusal to take part in the arbitration will, in all probability, speed up the process of ruling against Russia significantly”.

How the Greenpeace activists prepare complaints to the European Court on Human Rights

The advocates representing several crew members of Arctic Sunrise said on October 7 that they prepared a list of complaints to be filed with the Russian as well as international instances. According to Sergey Golubok, the advocate of one of the accused of piracy, a complaint against the prison conditions for the arrested. See here for more details

Vladimir Putin: “The Greenpeace activists are no pirates”

President Vladimir Putin spoke in September on the incident involving Greenpeace environmentalists of the ship Arctic Sunrise, who had protested at the Prirazlomnaya oil rig in the Pechora sea. See here for more details

How Greenpeace activists were accused of piracy

The ICR officials charged the first four Greenpeace activists out of 30, who took part in the Pechora sea accident, with piracy. According to the new edition, the crime with which the activists were charged was qualified under part 3 of Article 227 of the PCRF (piracy performed with the use of items used as weapons, which caused grave consequences). See here for more details.

Elena Chernenko. See the source of the publication here.