russia tagged posts

A fleet of Russian supertrawlers has been spotted fishing off the coast of Scotland in a protected area, raising concerns by environmentalists over the impact of industrial vessels on marine life in UK waters. The 11 vessels, among the largest trawlers in the world, have spent “significant time” fishing in the Wyville-Thomson Ridge, a British special area of conservation (SAC), according to data analysed by Greenpeace.

The vessels, each more than 100 metres long and capable of processing hundreds of tonnes of fish every day, are believed to be targeting blue whiting, a pelagic species that lives in midwater.

The fleet is operating legally, according to the Scottish government. The area, to the west of the Shetland Islands, is within waters shared by the UK and the Faroe Islands...

Fourteen Greenpeace activists, including at least four from the UK, have been charged with piracy by the Russian authorities. They were among a 30-strong crew on a Greenpeace ship that was protesting against oil drilling in the Arctic. The group was arrested last month after two of the protesters tried to board an oil platform owned by the Russian state-controlled firm Gazprom.

Greenpeace has called the charges “irrational, absurd and an outrage”.

‘Piracy of an organised group’

The 14 activists were taken from jail to the Murmansk office of the Investigative Committee, the Russian equivalent of the FBI, the BBC’s Daniel Sandford reports from Moscow.

There they were formally charged with “piracy of an organised group”, an offence that carries a 15-year prison sentence.

Those charged inclu...