Greenpeace Learning Lesson From Russia

There is probably few countries where I would rather be arrested and tried less than Russia.  One reason would is that even with the embarrassing decline in traditional constitutional values of our government, rule of law is still far more strongly enforced in the United States than it is in Russia. The other is the Russians don't dick around when it comes to administering justice, they are a hard people with hard ways.  A few activists from Greenpeace are now discovering this fact after foolishly trying to disrupt an Arctic drilling platform and are now facing piracy charges. They could potentially face up to fifteen years in a Russian prison.

For any wannabe activist out there this is something you need to consider. As bad as you may think the American prison system is, can you imagine what a Russian prison would be like? Not that I have any sympathy for them. Leftist activists frequently violent the civil rights of individuals when it suits them, whether it be attempted intimidation of people they disagree with, or the outright physically preventing a person from entering a work place that they happening to be picketing. They are utter hypocrites who care more about their precious egos then the causes of freedom and good governance are even simply following the same rules the expect everyone else to follow. Example:

Greenpeace insisted that under international law Russia had no right to board its ship and has no grounds to charge its activists with piracy.
 

This is laughable considering the reason their ship is being boarded is because they attempted to board the oil platform which is inside the Russian Economic Zone of Influence, which gives Russia special rights in these zones according to international law, and may even be inside Russian territorial waters when considering that it is in the Pechora Sea, which means international law wouldn't even apply. Also, international law doesn't prohibit a nation from boarding a ship that has taken action against it.  In either case it doesn't really matter, the Russians are going to do what they want and there is little Greenpeace can do about it than whine.  I especially love this little tidbit.

One Greenpeace activist told The Associated Press that Coast Guard officers hit and kicked some activists when they stormed the Greenpeace vessel.
 

Greenpeace activists should count themselves lucky that they were only roughed up a bit, and weren't shot or had their bones broken. Honestly what did they expect? They stormed a Russian oil platform, who did they think was going to respond? The United Nations? No, it's going to be a Russian military vessel. It shouldn't have to be repeated, but Greenpeace is either hard of hearing or stupid. They are Russians, they don't fuck around with this sort of thing.



Lastly, given that the Russians have earned a ton of kudos points for standing up to the U.S in regards to Snowden, they are probably going to be that much less likely to be lenient with the Greenpeace activists. Greenpeace is learning a hard lesson. That lesson is this. The Russians are perfectly willing to mess you up if you cross them