The Russians were lucky no one was hostile.
They were sitting ducks for a long time.
I would bet an American Seal team wouldn’t have taken so long getting on board.
You bet, took way to long to”fast rope” in,and yes it did look like the greenies were trying to provoke a confrontation, the Russians showed great restraint.
IMHO, they have different rules considering different situation. For example it is illegal for Russian police to cuff non-violent suspects who are transported in a police car. Somalian pirates were boarded from helicopter too but it was absolutely different as we know. Pirates were armed at the time and some were killed by the Russian boarding party in process. In Greenpeace situation there was no risk of armed resistance but huge risk of provocation to make authorities look brutes to film it for PR purposes. I guess they have negotiated such a risk just perfectly.