<p> A Greenpeace activist today staged a two-hour protest in a tent suspended from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower against Russia's detention of 30 members of the environmental lobby group.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The activist also unveiled a banner with the slogans "Free the Arctic 30" and "Militants in prison, climate in danger", forcing authorities to close the French monument to tourists in the morning.<br /><br />The protest, which began at around 9 am (1230 IST) ended two hours later after firemen removed the activist from the site.<br /><br />Moscow has sparked an international outcry over its heavy-handed response after two Greenpeace activists in September scaled a state-owned oil platform to protest against Russian energy exploration in the Arctic.<br /><br />It detained 30 crew members of the Dutch-flagged icebreaker Arctic Sunrise, including two journalists, in the northern Murmansk region, on piracy charges, which prosecutors later reduced to hooliganism.<br /><br />Cyrille Cormier, a Greenpeace campaigner, told AFP: "We are here to send a message to the French government to do everything to secure the release of the 28 militants and two journalists."<br /><br />"Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is due to visit Russia next week. We are asking him to put this case on the agenda," he added.</p>
<p> A Greenpeace activist today staged a two-hour protest in a tent suspended from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower against Russia's detention of 30 members of the environmental lobby group.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The activist also unveiled a banner with the slogans "Free the Arctic 30" and "Militants in prison, climate in danger", forcing authorities to close the French monument to tourists in the morning.<br /><br />The protest, which began at around 9 am (1230 IST) ended two hours later after firemen removed the activist from the site.<br /><br />Moscow has sparked an international outcry over its heavy-handed response after two Greenpeace activists in September scaled a state-owned oil platform to protest against Russian energy exploration in the Arctic.<br /><br />It detained 30 crew members of the Dutch-flagged icebreaker Arctic Sunrise, including two journalists, in the northern Murmansk region, on piracy charges, which prosecutors later reduced to hooliganism.<br /><br />Cyrille Cormier, a Greenpeace campaigner, told AFP: "We are here to send a message to the French government to do everything to secure the release of the 28 militants and two journalists."<br /><br />"Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is due to visit Russia next week. We are asking him to put this case on the agenda," he added.</p>