He's only been in the top job for a little over a year, but already Greenpeace Australia boss David Ritter is embroiled in the biggest crisis to hit the environment group since the Rainbow Warrior was bombed nearly three decades ago.
A group of Greenpeace activists - including Tasmanian man Colin Russell - is holed up in a freezing Russian jail charged with piracy, and face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.
It's an unthinkable prospect for Mr Russell's wife Christine, who claims the Greenpeace radio operator has lost weight and is kept in his cell 23 hours a day.
Mr Ritter doesn't need reminding that Friday marks a month since the 30 Greenpeace activists were detained at gunpoint as they protested against oil drilling in the Arctic.
"With anyone I meet or anything I do at the moment, it's front and centre," he told AAP in Canberra.
"This is a pretty big thing to have happen in your day job."
He's been lobbying the Australian government to intervene on behalf of Mr Russell and three other protesters, who either hold dual passports or permanently reside here.
The information trickling through is that they're in good spirits, but it's winter in Murmansk and there have been reports of a lack of food and miserable conditions.
As head of Greenpeace's Australia Pacific branch, Mr Ritter has been in close touch with the families of the detained, who he says are worried sick about their loved ones.
Christine Russell released a statement on Friday after Colin was denied bail overnight, saying she couldn't imagine a life without her husband of 25 years.
She appealed directly to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to help her husband, with whom she has been denied any contact.
"My two letters to (Foreign) Minister (Julie) Bishop have gone unanswered, so I don't know what if anything the Australian government is doing to help get Col home," she said.
Mr Ritter has urged the government to write a letter of guarantee for Mr Russell, as the administrations of Brazil and Argentina had done for their citizens of the "Arctic 30".
Greenpeace supporters on Friday will gather outside the Russian consulate in Sydney, one of dozens of protests held since the group was detained over their climate change protest.
Mr Ritter said many within Greenpeace viewed it as the "single greatest assault" of the veteran environment movement since its vessel the Rainbow Warrior was sabotaged in New Zealand in 1985.
"It's (Russian incident) an extraordinary attack on us that sits atop a campaign of monumental significance," he said.
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