Kremlin says knows nothing about Anderson asking Putin to stop whale meat smugglers

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday he had no knowledge of a letter sent by Hollywood actress Pamela Anderson to Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking him to prevent the passage of a cargo ship carrying 1,700 tonnes of fin whale meat to Japan, TASS reports.

“No, we do not know anything about it [the letter],” Peskov told journalists.

On Tuesday, the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society published on its website a “personal request” letter from the Canadian-American actress and model, asking President Putin to use his authority over Russian territorial waters to block the passage of the cargo vessel Winter Bay through the Northeast Passage.

The Saint Kitts and Nevis-registered cargo vessel, Winter Bay, is reportedly carrying more than 1,700 tons of fin whale meat, harvested off the shore of Iceland and bound for sale at markets in Japan.

In her letter, Anderson says Putin has the power to “stop this illegal transit by forbidding this vessel from carrying a cargo of endangered Fin whale meat through Russian waters to Japan”.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) decided in 1982 to cease the hunting of fin whales until the increase in their numbers. In 2006, Iceland unilaterally resumed commercial whaling. It exports fin whale meat to Japan.