The
Greenpeace response to the actions of the Russian authorities, following the
invasion of their oil-drilling platform by Greenpeace activists, has been
revealing and deeply ironic. The Russian
actions, they said, were an ‘assault on the very principle of peaceful
protest. Most pointedly, Greenpeace also
said of the Russian tactics, that they were, ‘intimidatory’.
Of
course, they were right in this latter comment.
What the Russians did (and are continuing to do) is indeed,
intimidatory. They are intent on putting
up the price of the kind of ‘protest’ that is Greenpeace’s stock-in-trade. And this is where the irony comes in.
