A general view of the Russian polar explorer ship Akademik Aleksandr Karpinsky docked in Cape Town Harbor in Cape Town on January 29, 2023. , photo credit: AFP
A Russian polar research vessel docked in South Africa’s Cape Town port over the weekend as climate protesters raised fears it could be used to help Moscow locate minerals in protected Antarctica.
According to Russian media, the academician Aleksandr Karpinsky icebreaker is on its way to the Antarctic as part of a scientific expedition launched late last year.
The vessel is owned by Polar Marine Geosurvey Expedition, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned mineral exploration company Rosgeo.
“We believe there will be further exploitation,” said Jackie Tukey, a spokeswoman for Extinction Rebellion.
A small group of environmentalists gathered in Cape Town’s harbor on Sunday waving placards and chanting: “No more fossil fuels, join hands with Antarctica! No more war!”
“We saw the ship come into port at 8:41 on Saturday morning,” Cassie Goodman, climate campaigner for Extinction Rebellion, said on Sunday.
Mineral exploitation is banned in Antarctica, and Rosaggio denies allegations that the firm is engaged in exploration of the icy continent’s mineral resources.
RosGeo’s activities are “exclusively scientific in nature, both on the continent of Antarctica and in the surrounding seas,” its spokesman told Russian newspaper Kommersant on Saturday.
The 68th Russian Antarctic Scientific Expedition studied global climate change and oceanography in the marginal seas of Antarctica, as well as other glaciological research in and around Antarctica.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in Pretoria for talks and the ship came days after Westerners were outraged over South Africa’s closer ties with Russia amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
South Africa has opposed taking sides in the war, which has triggered sweeping Western sanctions against Moscow and attempts to isolate it diplomatically.
This is the second Russian ship to anchor in South Africa in as many months.
In December, South Africa was criticized for allowing a sanctioned Russian cargo ship to dock and offload its cargo at the Cape Town naval base.
A vessel tracking app traced the academic Aleksandr Karpinski in the port of Cape Town on Sunday and showed it had left St Petersburg on Christmas Day last year.
The southwestern city of Cape Town is a long-established gateway to Antarctica.
“This ship has used Cape Town as a launchpad for these Antarctica missions for more than 20 years,” Greenpeace campaigner Ellen Niles told AFP on Sunday.
“South Africa has a moral duty on behalf of its citizens, Africa and the whole world not to enable this type of activity in an area that is very ecologically sensitive,” she said.
Akademik Aleksandr Karpinski will join the ship Akademik Fedorov, which left Russia in November 2022.
The 1991 Madrid Protocol bans all mineral extraction in Antarctica and includes measures for the protection of its flora and fauna, prevention of marine pollution, tourism control and waste management.