Because of the Russian ship, The Potempkin, Russia has had a stormy relationship with Greenpeace who tried to stop the slaughter of whales.

Putin is hardly the harbinger of freedom and civil rights after his disgraceful condemnation of LGBT people. He reacted like a dictator to the Pussy Riot pranks and still carries the redolence of the KGB.

Greenpeace is calling attention to the problem of whale slaughter and environmental issues and though some may not approve of its techniques, no one else aside from Bill McKibben
and the KPL resistance is doing much. Greenpeace is bringing two issues into focus,
1. the environment and habitat for animals and 2. the repressive means that Putin uses to hammer opponents.