Dutch royals asked to discuss captives during Moscow visit

Thirty Greenpeace activists imprisoned in Russia after staging a protest at a Gazprom oil rig in the Arctic have appealed to King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands to raise their detention with President Vladimir Putin when they meet in Moscow next week.

The appeal is contained in a personal letter to the king written by Faiza Oulahsen, a 26-year-old Dutch crew member of the Greenpeace ship, Arctic Sunrise, which was boarded and detained by Russian special forces during the protest in September, sparking a diplomatic row.

The king and his wife, Queen Maxima, are scheduled to meet Mr Putin in the Kremlin next Friday evening at the start of a state visit to mark the culmination of 12 months of special events celebrating 400 years of friendly diplomatic, cultural and business ties.

In reality, however, relations between the two countries have rarely been less friendly.

The Dutch government is taking legal action against Russia at an international tribunal, demanding the release of the Amsterdam-registered Arctic Sunrise and her crew, who have been charged with hooliganism, carrying a prison sentence of up to seven years. They were earlier charged with piracy.

The situation became even more fraught last month when the Netherlands was forced to apologise for violating the diplomatic immunity of a senior Russian diplomat who was arrested by police in The Hague when neighbours complained about his treatment of his young children.

Days later, a senior Dutch diplomat was attacked and beaten in his Moscow apartment by two unidentified men who drew an anti-gay message on a mirror, in an apparent reference to the Dutch government’s well-known support for gay rights. Nobody has yet been arrested.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte said at the time that although he could see no reason why the new king’s visit to Russia should not go ahead, the monarch should not be used “as a pawn” in the diplomatic row.

Dire conditions
That could now be difficult to avoid, however. In her letter to King Willem-Alexander, Ms Oulahsen, a political science graduate of Amsterdam University, describes the bleak conditions in which she and her colleagues have been held on remand in Murmansk for the past three weeks.

In stark contrast to the luxury awaiting the royal couple, the toilet in their detention centre does not work, the water pipes are leaking, and the window can’t be closed on the sub-zero temperatures outside, she recounts in the letter, published yesterday.

There were unconfirmed reports in the Netherlands last night that some of the crew – from 17 countries – had been moved from Murmansk to Saint Petersburg.