At least 30 Greenpeace activists are being held at gunpoint by Russian security officers who stormed the group’s ship in the Arctic.
About 15 men in balaclavas seized the Arctic Sunrise ship in the Barents Sea, an activist said.
This comes a day after four Greenpeace members tried to board a Russian oil platform to prevent it from drilling.
The group says this threatens a unique and fragile environment – a claim denied by Moscow.
One activist on the ship said Greenpeace members were being held in the galley of the Arctic Sunrise, while the captain was being detained on the bridge.
The activist said he believed the armed men were members of Russia’s internal security service, the FSB.
About 15 men in balaclavas seized the Arctic Sunrise ship in the Barents Sea
Greenpeace also said its vessel was boarded in international waters and called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to release the crew immediately.
The ship is now expected to be taken to the Russian port of Murmansk.
The Russian foreign ministry earlier accused the group of “aggressive and provocative” behavior.
It said the actions of the activists who had tried to board Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya drilling rig on Wednesday “threatened people’s lives and could lead to environmental catastrophe in the Arctic with unpredictable consequences”.
Moscow also said that its coastguard vessel had to fire warning shots across the Dutch-flagged Arctic Sunrise.
The Dutch ambassador to Moscow was summoned to the foreign ministry over Greenpeace’s action.
A foreign ministry spokesman in The Hague later told Dutch media the issue had “our full attention” and that contacts with the Russian authorities would be pursued over what had happened.
The Gazprom project is Russia’s first effort to extract oil from the Barents Sea.
Prirazlomnaya is scheduled to begin production by the end of the year. Russia’s economy and its recent growth depend to a large extent on income from its huge oil and gas deposits.
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William Plotnikov is a new figure that emerged in the story of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s conversion to violent extremist Islam.
Nicknamed “The Canadian”, William Plotnikov was a 23-year-old boxer from Canada who Tamerlan Tsarnaev met online and may have visited during his trip to Russia last year.
William Plotnikov, a Muslim convert from Toronto, could have spurred Tamerlan Tsarnaev to direct his against the US, new reports reveal.
The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reports that Tamerlan Tsarnaev went to Dagestan – a Russia republic torn by jihadist terrorism – to join an Islamic militia and fight against Russian forces in July 2012.
One day after William Plotnikov was killed by Russian security forces, Tamerlan Tsarnaev fled to Moscow. The next day he was back to the United States.
William Plotnikov, a Muslim convert from Toronto, could have spurred Tamerlan Tsarnaev to direct his against the US
Another contact Tamerlan Tsarnaev had in Dagestan – Makhmud Mansur Nidal, 19 – was also killed by Russian forces during his six-month visit to the war-torn region.
Novaya Gazeta suggests William Plotnikov may have turned Tamerlan Tsarnaev against the United States.
“It seems that Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to Dagestan with the aim of joining the insurgents. It didn’t work out..,” a security source told the newspaper.
“After Nidal and Plotnikov were destroyed and he lost his contacts, Tsarnaev got frightened and fled.”
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s parents moved them to the US from the troubled Dagestan region years ago.
The similarities between William Plotnikov – who was called “The Canadian” by the other militiamen – and Tamerlan Tsarnaev are uncanny.
Both men were competitive boxers as teenagers. Both seemed to have suddenly turned to radical Islam in 2009 and quickly became interested in violent jihad being waged in Dagestan – where Islamic militias are targeting the moderate Sufi Muslims and fighting Russian security forces who control the region.
Both were born in Russian republics and later moved to the West, where they struggled to fit in.
It is unknown whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev and William Plotnikov ever met in person.
At one point, Tamerlan Tsarnaev visited his aunt in Toronto – the same city where Plotnikov lived with his parents.
William Plotnikov seized and interviewed by Russian authorities in 2010. At that time told them that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was one of the people he communicated with online.
Novaya Gazeta reports that the two communicated via a site associated with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, a non-governmental organization.
William Plotnikov was then released by the Russians and went on to join an Islamic militia and take up arms against Russian security forces in Dagestan.
In February 2012, Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to Dagestan.
Novaya Gazeta reports that he was seen “more than once” by Russian intelligence units with Makhmud Mansur Nidal, 19, a half-Palestinian Dagestani who is believed responsible for a twin bomb attack in the capital Makhachkala that killed 13 people.
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