Paul McCartney scrive a Putin per il rilascio degli attivisti di Greenpeace

Dear Vladimir,

I hope this letter finds you well. It is now more than ten years since I played in Red Square, but I still often think about Russia and the Russian people.

I am writing to you about the 28 Greenpeace activists and two journalists being held in Murmansk. I hope you will not object to me bringing up their case.

I hear from my Russian friends that the protesters are being portrayed in some quarters as being anti-Russian, that they were doing the bidding of western governments, and that they threatened the safety of the people working on that Arctic oil platform.

I am writing to assure you that the Greenpeace I know is most certainly not an anti-Russian organisation. In my experience they tend to annoy every government! And they never take money from any government or corporation anywhere in the world.

And above all else they are peaceful. In my experience, non-violence is an essential part of who they are.

I see you yourself have said that they are not pirates - well, that's something everybody can agree on. Just as importantly, they don't think they are above the law. They say they are willing to answer for what they actually did, so could there be a way out of this, one that benefits everybody?

Vladimir, millions of people in dozens of countries would be hugely grateful if you were to intervene to bring about an end to this affair. I understand of course that the Russian courts and the Russian Presidency are separate. Nevertheless I wonder if you may be able to use whatever influence you have to reunite the detainees with their families?

Forty-five years ago I wrote a song about Russia for the White Album, back when it wasn't fashionable for English people to say nice things about your country. That song had one of my favourite Beatles lines in it: "Been away so long I hardly knew the place, gee it's good to be back home."

Could you make that come true for the Greenpeace prisoners?

I hope, when our schedules allow, we can meet up again soon in Moscow.

Sincerely yours,

Paul McCartney

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Qualche giorno fa, il 14 Novembre 2013, Sir Paul McCartney ha scritto una lettera personale sul suo blog indirizzata al presidente Vladimir Putin. Nella lettera si chiede il rilascio degli Arctic 30 e cioe' i 28 attivisti di Greenpeace International e di due giornalisti freelance che sono stati arrestati un paio di mesi fa per protestare in modo del tutto pacifico contro le trivelle in Artico. 

Gli Artic 30 si trovano in un carcere di San Pietroburgo e sono o sono stati accusati di "pirateria" e di "hooliganism" dopo le loro dimostrazioni su una piattforma della Gazprom di Russia nel Pechora Sea.

Il reato di "pirateria" in Russia e' condannato con una pena di 15 anni.

Dal canto suo, la Gazprom ha in progetto di iniziare la produzione di petrolio nel primo quadrimestre del 2014 in un'area dell'Artico di Russia che contiene tre riserve naturali.

Ecco qui la lista dei nomi degli Artic 30. C'e' anche un italiano:


Crew Peter Henry Willcox
Nationality: American
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Miguel Hernan Perez Orzi
Nationality: Argentinian
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Activist Camila Speziale
Nationality: Argentinian
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Colin Russell
Nationality: Australian
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Ana Paula Alminhana Maciel
Nationality: Brazilian
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Activist Philip Ball
Nationality: British
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Freelance videographer Kieron Bryan
Nationality: British
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Activist Alexandra Harris
Nationality: British
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Activist Frank Hewetson
Nationality: British
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Activist Anthony Perrett
Nationality: British
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Iain Rogers
Nationality: British
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Alexandre Paul
Nationality: Canadian
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Paul D Ruzycki
Nationality: Canadian
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Activist Faiza Oulahsen
Nationality: Dutch
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Mannes Ubels
Nationality: Dutch
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Anne Mie Roer Jensen
Nationality: Danish
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Activist Sini Saarela
Nationality: Finnish
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Francesco Pisanu
Nationality: French
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Cristian D'Alessandro
Nationality: Italian
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Jonathan Beauchamp
Nationality: New Zealand
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew David John Haussmann
Nationality: New Zealand
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Activist Tomasz Dziemianczuk
Nationality: Polish
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Activist Roman Dolgov
Nationality: Russian
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Freelance photographer Denis Sinyakov
Nationality: Russian
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Activist Andrey Allakhverdov
Nationality: Russian
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew (Name withheld on request)
Nationality: Russian
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Activist Dima Litvinov
Nationality: Swedish / American (dual citizenship)
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Activist Marco Weber
Nationality: Swiss
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Gizem Akhan
Nationality: Turkish
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Crew Ruslan Yakushev
Nationality: Ukrainian
Status: Charged with piracy under Article 227 of the Russian Criminal Code

Per il loro rilascio si sono mobilitate diverse persone ed associazioni, fra cui il Premio Nobel per la Pace  Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch e anche l'attore Ewan McGregor. Finora Greenpeace ha raccolto circa 640,000 firme in favore degli Artic 30.

Di qualcuna di queste persone so qualcosa perche' ne ho letto sulla stampa. Ad esempio, Dima Litvinov vive in California e tutta la sua famiglia, da tre generazioni, e' stata arrestata per proteste civili, in Russia prima e dopo la guerra. Suo padre e' stato in Siberia per avere protestato l'invasione russa della Cecoslovacchia. 

La storia di Christian, italiano, invece e' qui, da Repubblica.

Io non so cosa spinga queste persone a lasciare tutto e ad andare in Russia a protestare contro le trivelle della Gazprom. So solo che a loro va tutto il mio rispetto e la mia gratitudine, perche' ci vuole molto coraggio, perche' e' grazie a loro che adesso il tutto il mondo si parla delle trivelle in Artico, perche' e' bello che ci siano degli idealisti.

Se non loro, chi ci sarebbe andato a protestare in Artico?

Ovviamente la domanda e' sempre la stessa, dove sono le persone famore importanti d'Italia a chiedere il rilascio degli Artic 30?

Berlusconi - per dirne una a caso -  non era forse un grande amico di Putin?
Perche' non lo chiama?

E Jovanotti, per dirne un altro a caso, perche' non fa opera di pubblicita' a favore degli Artic 30, oppure e' troppo impegnato a contare i soldi dell'ENI?

Nonostante le sue manie di grandezza, dubito fortemente che Rocco Papaleo sia conosciuto in Russia, ma chissa' che non abbiano visto anche loro il Festival Di San Remo!!!

La mia domanda pero' e' sempre piu' grande del singolo episodio.

Dove sono tutti gli artisti d'Italia - a parte i casi eroici del Commissario Montalbano per esempio - a levare la propria voce contro gli scempi al territorio, che sia in Russia, che sia a Napoli, che siano trivelle, che siano veleni?


Dove sono i Paul Mc Cartney, i Robert Redford e le Darryl Hannah d'Italia?