Russia outlaws Greenpeace International. NGO condemns decision as ‘absurd, irresponsible, and destructive.’
Russia’s Prosecutor General has designated Greenpeace International an “undesirable organization,” banning its activities across the country.
The authority’s press-release alleges that Greenpeace International “poses a danger to the foundations of Russia’s constitutional order and security,” and that its work involves “active promotion of a political agenda and attempts to interfere in the state’s internal affairs, with an aim to undermine its economic foundations.”
According to the state agency, Greenpeace International’s campaigns intervene with “infrastructure and energy projects advantageous to the country.” Particularly since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, “Greenpeace activists have been engaging in anti-Russian propaganda, calling to further our country’s economic isolation and pushing for tougher sanctions,” the same document alleges.
In November 2022, a group of State Duma deputies from several Siberian regions proposed designating Greenpeace International an “undesirable organization.” Greenpeace connected this attack to its own uncompromising position on proposed changes to the Russian environmental law that would lift the ban on logging around Lake Baikal, a protected ecosystem in Siberia and the world’s deepest freshwater lake.
Update: The “undesirable” designation has forced the Russian branch of Greenpeace International to announce its closure.
The NGO condemned the designation, dissenting sharply from the way the Russian authorities have presented the situation: “We disagree cardinally with the Prosecutor General’s decision, which makes it illegal for Greenpeace to continue any kind of work in Russia,” writes the Russian division of Greenpeace on Telegram.
“We are certain,” the statement goes on,
that designating Greenpeace International an undesirable organization was prompted by our work of trying to prevent, often successfully, the implementation of environmentally destructive plans.
“The dissolution of Greenpeace in Russia is an absurd, irresponsible, and destructive step that has nothing to do with protecting the country’s best interests,” the organization concludes.