page_title: Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise ship case
section_title: Greenpeace announcements
hierarchical_section_title: Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise ship case / Responses / Greenpeace announcements
caption_attribution_description: English: Vigil for the release of the Arctic 30 in front of the Russian Embassy on the Unter den Linden in Berlin.
context_page_description: After Greenpeace activists attempted to scale the Prirazlomnaya drilling platform on 18 September 2013, as part of a protest against Arctic oil production, Russian authorities seized the Greenpeace ship the Arctic Sunrise in international waters in the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone on 19 September 2013, arrested the crew at gunpoint, towed the ship to Murmansk, and detained the crew of 28 activists and two freelance journalists.
  The Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal investigation, charging the activists initially with piracy and later with hooliganism.
  Since the Arctic Sunrise was flying the Dutch flag, the Netherlands filed a case at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and obtained an order for the release of the crew and ship pending a final adjudication of the matter. Russia ignored the ITLOS ruling, but eventually released the crew as part of a general amnesty adopted by the State Duma after two months of detention. The Arctic Sunrise itself was released in June 2014.
context_section_description: According to Greenpeace, charges of piracy against peaceful activists have no merit in international law. Greenpeace rejected the suggestion of illegal drugs on the Arctic Sunrise. Certain pharmaceutical drugs are kept in a safe. The Russian authorities broke the safe after they took the vessel.
  Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace USA, argues that the arrest of the Arctic 30 is the stiffest response that Greenpeace has encountered from a government since the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by the French secret service in 1985.
  Greenpeace activists continue to call for governments to save the arctic, the original motivation for the protest.
  According to Dutch Greenpeace members, the condition of the Greenpeace ship worsened during its stay in Murmansk, as the Russian officials are not taking proper care of the vessel.
caption: Vigil for the release of the Arctic 30 in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin
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