MOSCOW, October 2 (RAPSI) – Greenpeace activists Sini Saarela and Dmitry Litvinov, who were detained over a protest action against oil drilling in the Arctic, have been charged with the maritime piracy.

“Two Greenpeace activists, who were detained on the Arctic Sunrise ship over a peaceful protest at Prirazlomnaya [a drilling rig], have been charged with the crime [of] piracy within an organized group” Greenpeace statement reads.

The Arctic Sunrise ship was seized by Russian border guards on September 19 in international waters, within Russia's exclusive economic zone, a day after two Greenpeace activists scaled the Prirazlomnaya drilling rig in the Pechora Sea, the southeastern part of the Barents Sea. Greenpeace claimed that the ship was held under armed guard.

The platform, owned by Gazprom Neft Shelf, a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom, is the first ice-resistant stationary oil platform in the world set to produce offshore Arctic oil.

Greenpeace and other environmental groups oppose drilling for oil in the Arctic because they say that it is currently impossible to sufficiently clean up potential oil spills in the region, and that such drilling cannot be economically viable without state subsidies.