Amnesty International says it is disturbed by a Russian court's decision to detain a group of Greenpeace activists for two months without charge.
New Zealanders Jon Beauchamp and David John Haussmann were among 30 people arrested after a protest on an oil rig last week.
The activists' ship was seized and towed to shore after two people tried to scale the oil platform to protest against Russian plans to drill for oil in the Arctic.
A district court in the city of Murmansk has ruled that 22 of the group must remain in custody until 24 November. The other eight face a hearing in three days.
Amnesty New Zealand says the actions of the Russian authorities are totally disproportionate to the actions of the protesters.
Executive director Grant Bayldon has described talk of piracy charges as ridiculous.
"Now we seem to be looking at two months detention without charge, what it's starting to look like is really yet another example of a crackdown on dissent in Russia," he says.
"There's a long list of cases where Russia's arbitrarily restricted basic human rights and imposed very harsh sentences on peaceful protesters. That's what we seem to be seeing now."
Mr Bayldon says Amnesty is calling for the activists and journalists to be released on reasonable bail and given full access to defence lawyers.
