Russian court remands last of Greenpeace Arctic oil protesters

* Russian court extends detention of 8 activists

* 30 people accused of piracy, could face years in jail

* Greenpeace sees no signs of Kremlin shifting position

By Alexei Anishchuk

MOSCOW, Sept 29 (Reuters) - A Russian court has ordered eight remaining Greenpeace activists be held in custody for two months over a protest against Arctic offshore drilling, the environment advocacy group said on Sunday, dashing any hope some might be released quickly.

Authorities detained all 30 members of the pressure group who were aboard icebreaker the Arctic Sunrise when they broke up attempts to scale state-run Gazprom's Prirazlomnaya offshore oil platform on Sept. 18.

Of those, 22 people, including a freelance photographer and crew members had already been remanded until Nov. 24 while officials investigate charges of piracy which Greenpeace denies.

Piracy is punishable with up to 15 years of jail in Russia, although President Vladimir Putin said last week that the activists were clearly not pirates but had broken international law, suggesting they might end up facing less severe charges.

Greenpeace, which has described court proceedings as reminiscent of Soviet-era scare tactics, sees little sign of a shift from the Kremlin.

"From what we are seeing today in court in Murmansk, where eight more people were ordered to be held in custody for two months, nothing has altered the position of the authorities," head of the group's energy unit Vladimir Chuprov said in emailed comments.

"There was no assault, it was a peaceful protest of which (we) had warned the authorities," one of the activists, Dmitry Litvinov, told the court from an iron cage in a Murmansk courtroom.

Finnish activist Sini Saarela, one of the two people attempting to climb the platform, denied the charges of piracy.

"I am not a pirate," she said in the courtroom according to a Greenpeace Twitter account, @gp_sunrise. "Drilling for oil in ice is a tremendous threat to the environment all over the world."

Greenpeace says scientific evidence shows any oil spill from Prirazlomnaya would affect more than 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of Russia's coastline.

Russia sees the Arctic as its vital area of economic interest and Putin has promised to increase Russia's military presence in the region. (Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk; editing by Patrick Graham)

View the original article here

Russian Bolshoi acid attack victim to return to Moscow

Sergei Filin, artistic director of Russia's Bolshoi Ballet, attends a news conference in the university hospital in the western German city of Aachen March 15, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Wolfgang Rattay

MOSCOW | Thu Sep 12, 2013 12:56pm EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The artistic director of Russia's Bolshoi Ballet is returning to Moscow from Germany following eight months and 22 operations on his eyes and face after an acid attack that nearly blinded him, the theatre's spokeswoman said.

Sergei Filin will fly in on Saturday and take part in the troupe's reunion after holidays on Tuesday, the spokeswoman said. She could not say what role he might play in the troupe in the future.

"The troupe hopes very much that Sergei will recover and come back," Katerina Novikova said. "To what extent he will be able to take part in the life of the troupe, that will become clear in the nearest future."

Filin had the power to make or break careers at the Bolshoi, a world-renowned symbol of Russian culture, and the January 17 attack put the ballet's bitter internal rivalries in the spotlight.

Novikova said in June Filin could not see out of one eye at all and vision in the second one was severely damaged. She had no fresh details on his health on Thursday.

One of the Bolshoi's top dancers, Pavel Dmitrichenko, is on trial on charges of ordering the attack. He and his two alleged accomplices face up to 12 years in jail if convicted.

Dmitrichenko, who made his name playing villains in Swan Lake and Ivan the Terrible, told the court he was upset with the management and Filin, but that he only wanted the artistic director beaten up, not attacked with acid.

Russia dismissed the long-serving head of the Bolshoi in the aftermath of the incident, and entrusted another experienced theatre manager with the mission to rebuild the theatre's reputation.

"From the very first day after this horrid event took place, everybody (in the theatre) felt we want to prove to ourselves and Sergei and the whole world that we are worthy and apt. The best thing we can do for Sergei is to do our job well, that is dance," Novikova said.

(Reporting by Catherine Koppel; Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

View the original article here

Russian Duma warns U.S. against Syria strike

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW | Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:55am EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian parliament on Wednesday urged the United States not to strike Syria, warning that military action could be a "crime against the Syrian people" but stopping short of threatening countermeasures.

Air strikes would "lead to new civilian deaths, further destruction of vital infrastructure and, in the end, an irreversible humanitarian catastrophe," the State Duma, the lower chamber, said in a declaration adopted by unanimous vote.

The non-binding declaration by the Duma, dominated by the Kremlin-controlled United Russia party, echoed the vociferous opposition to U.S. military action of President Vladimir Putin and his government.

"Those who are prepared to give an order for such an attack should understand that such actions could be qualified as a very crude violation of international law and as a crime against the Syrian people," it said.

It warned that a strike could "place nuclear and chemical security in the region under threat", a reference to Syria's chemical weapons stocks and a small reactor that contains radioactive uranium.

Russia has been Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most powerful backer during the civil conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people since 2011, delivering arms and - with China - blocking three U.N. resolutions meant to pressure Assad.

The Duma expressed support for Russia's proposal to place Syria's chemical arsenal under international control, which Putin said on Tuesday would only succeed if the United States and its allies abandoned plans for possible military action.

The vote followed debate in which lawmakers proposed Russia consider taking action to punish the United States if it does strike - such as withdrawing from the New START nuclear arms control pact, increasing weapons sales to Syrian ally Iran or curtailing cooperation with the United States on Afghanistan.

No such measures ended up in the declaration, but lawmakers said they could be included in a second statement that could be put to a vote if the United States strikes Syria.

The Duma criticized the U.S. Congress for allegedly refusing to see Russian lawmakers who offered to travel to Washington for talks on Syria, saying it "could place interaction on key issues on the Russian-American agenda in question".

(Editing by Andrew Roche)

View the original article here