Update | Greenpeace activists charged with piracy after Russian oil rig protest

Russian authorities charged Greenpeace activists from several nations with piracy yesterday over a protest against Arctic oil drilling at a platform owned by the state-controlled energy company Gazprom, the environmental group said.

The piracy charges, which Greenpeace said were absurd, are punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

The federal Investigative Committee said authorities had begun charging 30 people arrested after the protest last month, in which a Greenpeace icebreaker approached the Prirazlomnaya platform and two activists tried to scale the rig - a crucial part of Russia's effort to mine Arctic resources.

By midday, five people had been charged, Greenpeace said - Brazilian crew member Ana Paula Alminhana, Russian activist Roman Dolgov, Finnish activist Sini Saarela, British freelance videographer Kieron Bryan, and Dima Litvinov, an activist with Swedish and US citizenship.

"It is an extreme and disproportionate charge," Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo said.

"A charge of piracy is being laid against men and women whose only crime is to be possessed of a conscience. This is an outrage and represents nothing less than an assault on the very principle of peaceful protest."