( CNN ) -- Russia has dropped charges of piracy against 30 Greenpeace activists who were arrested during a protest against Arctic drilling in September . However , they 'll still be charged with hooliganism , which carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison , according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti . The original charge of piracy carried a sentence of up to 15 years . Greenpeace says the hooliganism charge is still `` wildly disproportionate . '' `` We will contest the trumped up charge of hooliganism as strongly as we contested the piracy allegations . They are both fantasy charges that bear no relation to reality , '' Vladimir Chuprov of Greenpeace Russia said in a statement . The so-called `` Arctic 30 '' includes 28 activists and two freelance journalists . They were arrested in September after two activists left their ship , the Arctic Sunrise , and attempted to scale an oil platform owned by Russian energy company Gazprom in the Barents Sea . The Russian coast guard detained the pair and the rest of the crew , and towed the ship to the northwestern Russian port city of Murmansk . `` Those brave men and women went to the Arctic armed with nothing more than a desire to shine a light on a reckless business . They should be with their families , not in a prison in Murmansk , '' Chuprov added . Greenpeace said the two activists were trying to hang a banner from the side of the rig in what the group called a peaceful protest against the `` slow but unrelenting destruction of the Arctic . '' But Russian authorities accuse them of trying to commandeer the platform . The authorities and Gazprom also say the activists endangered the lives of the company 's employees and that their action could have led to an environmental disaster . Along with the hooliganism charges , the chief of Russia 's Investigative Committee , Vladimir Markin , said some members of the group could also be charged with using force against state officials , according to RIA Novosti . The defendants include Americans Peter Wilcox , who is the captain of the Arctic Sunrise , and Dmitry Litvinov , who Greenpeace says also holds Swedish citizenship . The other detainees are from Argentina , Australia , Brazil , Canada , Denmark , Britain , New Zealand , Ukraine , Russia , France , Italy , Turkey , Finland , Switzerland , Poland , the United States and Sweden , the group said .
Brazil drops piracy charge , adds new charge of hooliganism . Gazprom says charge still `` wildly disproportionate '' 28 activists , two freelance journalists arrested in the Arctic Sunrise in up to seven years . Arrested after 28 activists tried to scale a Gazprom oil rig .