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The coast guard told us that if we didn’t let them board, they would use preventive fire — firing in front of the ship

The inflatables were called back and the crew didn’t prevent four unarmed Russian coast guard officers from boarding. They subjected the Arctic Sunrise to a lengthy inspection which, Ferguson said, found nothing wrong.

“They asked us a lot of questions about why we were here? What’s our reasons? What are our intentions? They were communicating back and forth to their captain and they told us that their captain demanded that we leave the Northern Sea Route area immediately and that if we didn’t, he would use ’strict measures.’

“We asked, ’What do you mean by strict measures?’ They confirmed that what they meant by strict measures was fire.

“Preventive fire, at first.”

Ferguson, who was in the meeting between her ship’s captain and the four officers, said the discussions were calm and reasonable. But the manner of the coast guard officers as they continued to receive instructions from their superiors convinced the Sunrise’s captain that the threat was real.

“It was a tone and feeling thing, but at a certain point it seemed to both of us that this was a real possibility. It wasn’t just a bluff.

“We decided the risk to our vessel and our crew was too high. The threat of force seemed actually credible. They might actually follow through on it.

“We agreed to leave.”

Because of stormy weather, it will take the Arctic Sunrise four days to leave Russian waters. It was being shadowed Monday by the coast guard.

Despite not being able to observe the seismic activity and carry out their protest, Ferguson said the trip was revealing.

“We came here to expose preparations for oil drilling and what we ended up exposing was that, and something else — the efforts of the Russian authorities to defend oil interests.”