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“Greenpeace activists stop a Russian fossil gas shipment from being offloaded in Finland Greenpeace Suomi
17/09/2022 • 2 min read
Tornio, Finland, September 17 2022 –  Activists from Greenpeace Nordic have stopped the ship Coral Energice from unloading its cargo of Russian fossil gas at an LNG terminal in Röyttä, Tornio, Northern Finland. Greenpeace activists in kayaks are in the water to prevent the ship from docking and climbers have occupied the cranes that would unload the gas from the ship. Greenpeace Nordic demands that the Finnish government declare an immediate stop to the import of Russian fossil gas.

“It’s completely unacceptable that Russian fossil gas is still allowed to flow into Finland, more than six months after Putin began his invasion of Ukraine. The Finnish government and prime minister Sanna Marin have to ban all Russian fossil fuel imports immediately. The state-owned company Gasum should not be allowed to continue funding the war in Ukraine”, says Olli Tiainen, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace Nordic.

Finnish state-owned Gasum has regularly imported gas from Russian Gazprom and the oligarch-owned Novatek in Russian Vysotsk to Finland and Sweden. https://www.hs.fi/talous/art-2000008990829.html Sometimes directly, but more recently, via a more intricate arrangement where the gas is first transhipped to other vessels at sea. Gasum’s customers in Finland include maritime and shipping operators as well as forest and steel industry companies.

Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin stated earlier this year that Finland would be able to cut off all Russian fossil fuel imports fast and the minister for state ownership steering Tytti Tuppurainen made a comment in August that the LNG imports from Russia should be stopped because Finland as well as all of Europe should not be dependent on Russian energy. Despite these statements, no real action to end the LNG imports has been taken.

 “Talks about the end of Russian gas imports have now been heard for months, but Gasum is still operating as if the war didn’t exist. The current energy crisis in Europe is caused by Russia’s aggression, and it should be a turning point for Finland and all of Europe. Now is the time we really need to transition away from fossil fuels that fuel both conflicts and crises. If Finland can’t stop the Russian gas imports that are funding the war, what kind of message does that send to the Ukrainians and to the rest of Europe?”, Olli Tiainen continues.

This peace protest is, like all Greenpeace actions, a safe and peaceful protest carried out with the highest priority on the safety of activists, personnel and equipment in the area. All activists are experienced climbers and use ATEX-rated equipment for work in dangerous environments. The activists also have measuring equipment to ensure that they are not exposed to any dangerous substances when they are in the area.” CC-BY-2.0: https://www.greenpeace.org/finland/tiedotteet/51016/greenpeace-activists-stop-a-russian-fossil-gas-shipment-from-being-offloaded-in-finland/ (see more photos and information at link.)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.fi