Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise ship case

On 18 September 2013, Greenpeace activists attempted to scale the Prirazlomnaya drilling platform, as part of a protest against Arctic oil production.

[citation needed] The following day, on 19 September 2013, Russian authorities seized the Greenpeace ship the Arctic Sunrise in international waters in the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone, arresting the crew at gunpoint, towing the ship to Murmansk, and detaining the crew of 28 activists and two freelance journalists for three months.

[1][2] In December 2013, despite having had ignored the ITLOS ruling, Russia released the crew anyway as part of a general amnesty adopted by the State Duma, after three months of detention.

[4][5] On 23 August, Greenpeace ignored Russia's ban to protest state oil company Rosneft's operations in the Arctic and entered the international waters of the Kara Sea.

",[9] although subsequently Greenpeace have stated that their aim was to hang banners on the oil rig to call for an end to Arctic drilling.

[10][11][12] On 19 September 2013, the day after the Prirazlomnaya protest, the Russian authorities forcibly took control of the Arctic Sunrise, which was boarded from a helicopter by fifteen Federal Security Service officers in balaclavas, armed with guns and knives.

"[26] Sinyakov posted on his Facebook account an image of a hooded Russian coast guardsman pointing a handgun at the boat.

[29] Eleven Nobel prize-winners wrote to Vladimir Putin asking the Russian president to drop charges against the Greenpeace activists and journalists.

On 22 November 2013, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled that the campaigners and the ship should be immediately released, and should be allowed to leave the country, against a bail of 3.5 Million Euro.

[39] William Hague, the foreign secretary UK, negotiated with Russian ministers over the fate of the six British nationals involved.

[40] According to Julia Marton-Lefèvre, the International Union for Conservation of Nature oil and gas exploring in the Arctic would have drastic consequences and the world should find low-carbon sources of energy.

[40] Damon Albarn of Blur showed a poster of Frank Hewetson during the band's concert in Santiago, Chile, on 7 November 2013, asking for him to be freed.

[citation needed] In December 2013, the 30 activists were all released from prison as part of a general amnesty, purportedly in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Russia's post-Soviet constitution.