TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Greenpeace Indonesia director Leonard Simanjuntak on Monday accentuated the protest against the ethics of purchasing Russian-produced crude oil amidst the nation’s military aggression against neighboring Ukraine. As reported on March 31, a Pertamina Prime supertanker was blocked by activists from the environmental watchdog’s regional branch known as Greenpeace Nordic off the coast of Denmark.

Leonard said the blockade is a protest against Russian oil exports which is widely considered to further finance the country’s war and is not consistent with Indonesia’s Constitution regarding maintaining peace at a global scale.

“There is a serious ethical problem actually taking place here. Purchasing cheap oil from aggressors,” Leonard lamented, “We are mandated by the 1945 Constitution to preserve world peace and this short term interest does not coincide with our constitutional values.”

He asserted that the blockade was done peacefully and without involving violence as he acknowledged the fact that Greenpeace does not have the authority to block all of the tankers from carrying oil to export it to other nations amidst the war.

Citing the environmental watchdog’s Denmark branch Sune Scheller, its U.K. counterpart has identified at least 299 supertankers carrying oil and gas from Russia since the country launched an invasion against Ukraine on February 24 with 132 of them destined to European countries.

Tempo tried to confirm this event to Pertamina VP corporate communications Fajriyah Usman but was not presented with a response until the publication of this story. Managements of the Indonesian state-owned energy firm have yet to officially respond to the blockade.

Days before the blockade, Pertamina president director Nicke Widyawati said in a meeting with Commission VI House of Representative (DPR) that the company plans to purchase oil from Russia that will later be processed at the Balongan refinery.

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FAIZ ZAKI