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 In a letter, the former Beatle told Putin that he wrote his
playful homage to the former Soviet Union in 1968, "back when it
wasn't fashionable for English people to say nice things about your
country."
Quoting the song's line "Gee it's good to be back home," McCartney
asked: "Could you make that come true for the Greenpeace prisoners?"
The 28 protesters, as well as a photographer and a videographer
working for Greenpeace, were detained aboard their ship, the Arctic
Sunrise, on Sept. 18 after staging a protest at an oil rig owned by
Russia's Gazprom state energy giant.
They were initially charged with piracy. That was later downgraded
to hooliganism, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years in
prison.
In the letter, posted on McCartney's official website, the musician
cited his long association with Russia, including an outdoor concert
in Red Square in 2003. On that occasion, Putin gave McCartney a
personally guided tour of the Kremlin.
McCartney told Putin he hoped they would meet again, "when our
schedules allow."
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 He said Greenpeace, which stages direct-action protests against
alleged environmental offenders around the world, was nonviolent and
"most certainly not an anti-Russian organization. In my experience
they tend to annoy every government!"
"I understand of course that the Russian courts and the Russian
presidency are separate," McCartney wrote. "Nevertheless I wonder if
you may be able to use whatever influence you have to reunite the
detainees with their families?"
An outspoken vegetarian, McCartney has long supported environmental
causes, and he has opposed drilling for oil in the Arctic.
He also was one of several international celebrities who last year
urged Russia to free two members of punk protest group Pussy Riot.
They remain in jail.
[Associated
Press; JILL LAWLESS]
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