Russian border guards are towing a Greenpeace ship to an Arctic port, where its activists could face charges for a protest on an oil rig owned by the Gazprom energy giant.
The Arctic Sunrise ship, which Russian security forces have controlled since storming the vessel in a dramatic helicopter operation on Thursday, is to arrive in the Russian far northern port of Murmansk on Tuesday, the group and officials said.
Thirty activists from the group, including two Australians and four Russians, are on board the vessel. Russia's powerful Investigative Committee said the crew may have committed piracy, which carries a prison term of up to 15 years in Russia.
"It's looking like a Tuesday morning arrival. The ship has slowed down, due to weather conditions we believe," a Greenpeace spokesman said.
The Russian authorities said the Arctic Sunrise was attached to a Russian tugboat to be taken into Murmansk after the captain refused to steer it himself.
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Two Greenpeace activists from Finland and Switzerland had climbed up the side of Gazprom's Prirazlomnaya oil platform in the Barents Sea in the Russian Arctic early on Wednesday to protest its oil drilling in a hugely sensitive environment.
The two activists were detained after warning shots were fired although they were later taken back to the Dutch-flagged Arctic Sunrise where the entire crew was placed under arrest and locked up in the mess.
