Greenpeace v. Putin

On 19 September 2013 the Russian authorities, armed with guns and knives, forcibly took control of Greenpeace’s icebreaker the Arctic Sunrise. The crew had been protesting against Russia’s state owned oil firm Gazprom drilling in Arctic waters. Initially it wasn’t clear what the 30 Greenpeace campaigners were going to be charged with - at one point they were accused of being pirates. We set up in Greenpeace’s London HQ and created press campaigns as the story evolved. We managed to get the campaign in the press and online within 48 hours. When the Arctic 30 were finally released there was still the issue of the Arctic Sunrise itself. Russian authorities didn’t release her until June 2014 and she was in a very poor state - internally she had been gutted and externally had suffered from sitting for 10 months in dock. We created the ‘MY (Marine Yacht) Arctic Sunrise’ appeal to raise the funds to tow the ice breaker home and refurbish her.