a passport prior to his decision to travel to Moscow in 1985. He first attempt at "international civil disobedience" action began with a plan to make a friendly gesture to the Soviet Union by attempting to visit Odessa, in a large boat he repaired for that purpose. Unfortunately this plan failed because Runnings' partner decided to drop out of the plan and keep the boat entirely for his own after Runnings had done most of the repairs himself. Runnings considered taking civil action but finally decided it would take too much energy away from his overall mission. A year after the Odessa plan, Runnings decided he would attempt to go to Berlin without a passport and there begin to take a sledgehammer to the Berlin Wall, hoping to inspire Germans to do the same. Several times in the early 1980s he attempted to fly out of New York and Boston airports with this intention. Each time he was arrested for persistent attempts to board commercial jets without a passport. On one occasion, he was sentenced to a period in Deer Island Prison near Boston, but was released early because of his persistence in going on hunger strikes and inspiring other prisoners to do the same. After a number of similar imprisonments, Runnings decided in 1985 that he would apply for a passport. He planned to first visit Moscow during 1985 and the following year, he would use a passport to visit Berlin. Once convinced to get a passport, Runnings went on to Moscow and leafletted all around Red Square for nearly a week. The Soviet authorities would have him taken to a police station about once every day or two and they would try to convince him to quit his leafletting. In his words, he would not say either "yes sir" or "no sir", but each time they released him, he would go back to leafletting, sometimes near Red Square, and sometimes he would take a subway to the suburbs. Finally, after nearly two weeks of "playing this police station game", the Soviet authorities got "really tired" of Runnings' persistence. One day they told him they wanted to move him to another "more convenient" hotel. They came with an Intourist vehicle, picked him up (he co-operated because he believed them) and took him to the Moscow airport where they put him on board a jet with no passengers, only stewardesses