They should have sunk it.....
Per Greenpeace's Twitter:
The following evening the Coast Guard illegally boarded Greenpeace's ship, the Arctic Sunrise. Activists are currently being held at gunpoint by the Russian Coast Guard.
Sinking the ship would be, of course, declared all over the world as "barbaric," so Russia has to walk a fine line here. Greenpeace perhaps wouldn't mind sacrificing a ship to get such a strong negotiating position. But instead they are being arrested for illegal border crossing. The crew of 25 has four citizens of Russian Federation; the rest are foreigners. That alone gives the border control agents the legal right to intercept the ship, even if the criminals are forced to interrupt the crime. (Being chased away is not an excuse.)
Gazprom's security sidekicks threaten protestors with guns
Poor, naive boys and girls, what the #$% did you expect, trying to initiate a cross-border attack on a foreign state? Do they even know what initiated the World War II? And they are attacking a property that is inherently dangerous to work on, in an unforgiving cold sea. A property that costs quite a lot of money. Every company and every state that has such dangerous machinery is required to defend it from yahoos. The guards were in their right to use .50 cal machine guns on the attackers as soon as they crossed the invisible line in the water 3 miles away. Did the Greenpeaceniks think that they can waltz across the border waving not passports but Greenpeace flags?
The ship is now under arrest, and it will be delivered to Murmansk. The Department of Foreign Affairs has already sent a complaint to Netherlands, where the ship is registered. Something tells me that Netherlands won't be sticking their neck out for Greenpeace. I suspect that the Russian government will simply confiscate the ship. This will surely send a message. Greenpeace may have some money, but not so much as to give ships away as gifts.