On Thin Ice: Putin v Greenpeace (2024) s01e06 Episode Script

1
This program me contains
some strong language
NEWS REPORT: He walked to vote
with a swagger.
Rarely has an election been
such a foregone conclusion.
SPEAKING RUSSIAN:
It was an incredibly daring mission.
It needed to be done.
But the plan, I think
you could say, went to shit.
GUNFIRE
NEWS REPORT: High drama
on the high seas tonight.
Russian forces have seized
control of a Greenpeace ship.
It felt like being in the middle
of a James Bond film.
15 years stuck in a Russian prison.
How did I get here?
Dealing with Putin - this was
a different game altogether.
It's like a ticking time bomb here.
How the hell are we going to
get them out?
NEWS REPORT: As President Putin's
time in office has gone on,
the Kremlin has become less
and less tolerant of dissent
For the 30 crew of the
Arctic Sunrise being held here
Earlier this week, the Netherlands
took Russia to court,
calling for
international intervention
to secure their release.
Yeah, we went in hard
on the ITLOS case.
And the legal team released
Phil's footage, you know,
to try to make an impact.
The video appears to show
the activists peacefully
submitting to their arrest.
But then the court was adjourned.
The hearing is now closed.
It was going to be a few weeks
until we found out what
the verdict was going to be.
You got this really weird situation
where our legal team
were saying, that went
about as well as it could have.
But at the same time,
you're kind of thinking, like,
does any of this even matter?
Like, as if Putin gives a shit
what the International Tribunal
for the Law of the Sea says.
I mean, we just doubted ourselves
all the time, you know,
we really did.
We felt that we weren't so much
playing chess with Putin,
so much as we were pieces
on a chess board.
And actually, there was
a reallyan even bigger game
going on between Russia
and the outside world, the West.
NEWS REPORT: The protestors here
feel they're fighting for the future
of the country - a European future,
not a Russian one.
"Russia without Putin" they chant.
At the helm,
opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.
President Obama has said
that Russia has stepped back
into a Cold War mentality.
Russia has a long history
of fearing foreign intervention.
Napoleon invaded.
Hitler invaded.
During the cold war,
the CIA are doing their best
to undermine the Soviet Union,
so that fear of sort of being
vulnerable to outside forces
is very strong.
All the women were
in solitary confinement.
It's inhumane.
When I was feeling down,
it was complete darkness and doom.
I'm going to be here for 15 years.
I'm going to lose out
on the best years of my life.
Ancl I remember from the prison yard,
I could see the prison hospital,
where you could see that there were
imprisoned women with small
children. Like, with babies.
I remember those children, like,
standing against the prison window
and looking out.
It's really heart-breaking.
I didn't know
if I wanted to have children.
But if we get imprisoned
for 15 years,
that decision is taken away from me.
Alone in my cell, I was thinking
often about the winter Olympics.
They were coming up
and that was actually
my biggest hope.
This is the moment for Russia
to show themselves
to the rest of the world.
And when you try to do that,
you don't want to have 30 activists
from 18 different countries
in prison.
We look forward and see that,
in February 2014,
there's the Sochi Olympics.
It was going to be the most
expensive Olympics in history,
and that makes it an ideal
opportunity for us
to put pressure on Putin.
So, the Sochi Olympics came
very soon after the very big
street protests against Putin.
And if he could pull them off
and make a success of them,
I think he felt that would really
go a long way to re-establishing
the stability of his own power.
He didn't want a repeat of what
had happened last time Russia
hosted the summer Olympics, in 1980.
After the Soviet Union
had invaded Afghanistan,
the western nations en masse
boycotted them,
which was a terrible blow for
the then Soviet Union.
So, Putin wanted to keep
the rest of the world onside.
Our feeling was,
if they were still in jail
after the Sochi Olympics,
that would be very, very bad.
Because we wouldn't then
have that lever, where we
could make trouble at the Olympics.
There's, like,
a ticking time bomb here.
Ancl if we don't get them out
before Sochi,
then potentially, we're fucked.
We were up against
this huge monolith -
the might of the Russian
political and judicial system.
It was Putin, and what did
we have against him?
We had the international media.
But we weren't getting the traction
we really needed in Russia.
Ancl so we called up the Russian
office and we said, you know,
"Who is the most famous person
in Russia that we could get
"to support this campaign?"
and she, you know,
without missing a beat said
Paul McCartney.
He's really huge in Russia.
Beatles are very important
in Russia.
I think it's like one of the bands
which were more or less
kind of tolerated to listen,
like, in the Soviet Union.
They said that Paul McCartney
is about the only person who can
command media in Russia in the same
way that Vladimir Putin can.
In 2003, Putin invited
Paul McCartney to come to Russia
All right. Red Square, red jacket.
and at the Red Square concert,
Putin turned up at half-time.
Not only is he widely admired
in Russia,
but he's admired by the man
in the Kremlin himself.
Ancl so it became the mission
to try to get Paul McCartney.
So, people started
trying to get to him.
You're emailing people to try to
get email addresses, so you can
email them to get more email
addresses, to get closer and closer,
where, eventually,
he will read an email from you.
Ancl we did that.
And we got one back.
Holy fucking shit!
He said he'd do it.
Paul McCartney is going to write
to Vladimir Putin
on behalf of the Arctic 30.
The letter itself was couched
absolutely right.
He wasn't telling Putin to do it,
he was saying that
if you let them go, you will be seen
as a magnanimous and just ruler.
Ancl it just fucking exploded.
It was just everywhere in Russia.
Paul McCartney has written to Putin.
I think he had a really big impact,
because it was the only chance
that we got to really tell
the story of the Arctic 30,
unimpeded and unedited.
It was great.
We hoped perhaps this could
get them out of Russian jail
and get them home.
Russian authorities
are dropping charges of piracy
against the 30 people detained
on a Greenpeace ship in the Arctic.
We had this kind of surge of,
is this it?
Is this it? Like, fuck!
They're getting out.
This is going to be nuts.
NEWS REPORT: Russia has lifted
the piracy charges
against 30 Greenpeace activists
and replaced them
with accusations of hooliganism.
Very, very quickly we learnt
that they had been changed
to a charge of hooliganism.
I mean, we were just
It was so bad.
That's not good news.
Well, piracy, with
10 to 15 year sentence,
that's completely unbelievable.
Hooliganism charge,
which is the same charge
that was brought against
Pussy Riot,
that carries a sentence of,
you know, I think
up to three or four years.
Ancl that's something that
I can believe might happen.
I mean, it was a charge
that was being specifically used
against protestors.
Hooliganism signal led an escalation.
So, we're coming up
to the end of the two months
of pre-trial detention,
and then our boss comes up
on the big screen and says,
"I've got bad news. We have heard
that they're going to ask
"for a significant extension
of the detention."
That would take us
beyond the Sochi Olympics.
They're not getting out.
Ancl I remember everyone
just slumping into their seats.
Ancl there was a real sense
of dejection.
But the lawyers tell us there's
actually an opportunity here,
because the change of charges
means that we can actually
apply for bail a second time.
The hearing was going to be
end of November.
But in all honesty,
we just didn't have much faith.
We felt that they're serious
about sending them to jail
for a long time.
I remembered I got a visit
from the British Consulate.
They said, "Look, we've had
a chat with the Greenpeace staff,
"and we want to tell you that
it's not looking that good."
And then one of them said, "Look,
maybe it's time for the apology."
And I said, "To who?"
And he went, "Well, to
the government, to Vladimir Putin."
Want you to say, basically,
you got it all wrong
and you made a hideous mistake
and you apologise.
I was thinking, "Well, maybe
this is what we have to do."
But this funny little tingling
in the back of my spine,
which managed to stiffen my spine.
I remember saying to him,
I said, "Man, I can't do that."
You have to have belief
in what you're doing.
I never really once doubted
that what we did was
the right thing to do.
Maybe the methods can be misguided,
but fundamentally,
the cause is right.
But I left that meeting
really, really upset.
I had no doubt we were
going to be taught a lesson
by the Russian state.
Going into those
second bail hearings,
we hoped that something
would happen.
But ultimately,
we didn't think it would.
The first one up was Colin Russell.
He's this beautiful guy,
an Australian radio operator.
You really want Colin to get out.
Russell, Colin.
That's correct.
He goes up there and
the Skype message comes through -
bail has been refused.
Bye-bye, everybody.
They've given him a further
three months of pre-trial detention.
Ancl it takes us beyond Sochi.
That was horrible,
because I knew that the rest of us
would then be refused.
When that news reached me,
that was like somebody
had punched me in the face.
I knew that we were still
going to be in prison
during the Sochi Olympics.
Ancl then I knew we're going to
be in here for a long time.
Then at some point,
this other message comes through,
and it says, you know, like,
something interesting is
happening at Katya's case.
The court had a break,
and then the judge came back in.
I had the feeling that some
important call reached them.
Suddenly, I don't know
what happened - a miracle.
"Lawyer asking for bail."
"judge saying considering bail."
"Just saying bail is granted."
That's What?
That must be a mistake,
cos Colin didn't get bail.
Why would there be a difference?
Ancl then you know,
big exclamation marks.
"Confirmation! Bail has been
granted! Bail has been granted!"
Like, fucking hell. Like, Jesus!
Yes! Yes!
just huge whoops and, you know,
mass rush of endorphins.
Ancl it was like the first,
like, sense of a breakthrough
after all this time.
Three weeks in, I was given a TV.
This was happening on the news
at the time, and I was like,
no, they've got this wrong,
Are you sure?
Because Colin was refused bail.
Why is Katya getting bail?
Denis was up next.
Ancl then, "Bail also granted."
"Bail also granted."
Ancl then they started
just going through them.
Everyone was getting bail.
APPLAUSE
APPLAUSE
Be nice.
I'm always nice!
HE LAUGHS
I remember going to the bail hearing
and I was in my normal
militant mood.
The prosecutor should be clone
for contempt of court.
Contempt of court.
Contempt of court.
just sayit means being naughty
in court.
I just remember being
really annoyed with them.
This whole court thing was just
complete political theatre, really.
How has this been for you?
How have you been holding up?
I love it, because this case
is bringing attention
to Gazprom and what they're doing.
So, the longer we're in here,
the stronger we get, really.
It's just utter bullshit.
I just wanted to get out.
Ancl they just said,
"Do you agree to all this stuff?"
Ancl I was just like, "Yes!"
And uh,
it was brilliant.
This is lain coming out now.
WHOOPS/CAMERAS CLICK
It's a change of heart by
the judges here in Russia.
Suddenly, one by one,
all the Greenpeace activists
are being given bail.
Thank you.
You must be very relieved
to get out?
Oh, I'm so happy.
I never thought this clay would come.
It all happened,
like, really quickly.
I had to sign some papers
and then they were just like,
"There's the door out."
And I was just like, what, what?
I can just walk out now?
Sini, how are you?
I'm free!
Congratulations!
And then we were driving, and then
I was like, can I open the window?
And they were like, "Sure."
So, I was sitting in the back seat,
so I just opened the window
and I put myself out
and I was just, like,
shouting, " | 'm free!"
And they were driving and laughing,
and they thought that
it was so hilarious.
But it was, like, that trip,
it feels like I was,
I don't know, high or something.
I was just like
It's, like, all in a cloud.
But, yeah, it was fantastic.
Putin doesn't like to be
pushed into doing things.
So, by granting them bail of his own
volition before he was going
to be called upon to grant them
bail, he was again being seen
as being his own master,
being the man in charge of things.
I still celebrate the clay
I walked out of prison.
November 22nd -
it's my liberation clay.
Every year.
It has changed me a lot.
Before, I felt desperate and anxious
in front of the question
of climate change.
But then somehow what
happened around the world
somehow changed me and my thinking.
Like, the hope
and the trust have dared me
to make the decision
that I want to have children.
Ancl that I, yeah, now have a child.
I left with the intention
that I would continue to be
an activist for Greenpeace,
but then I had to prioritise
my mental health.
I'm a mum to a three-year-old now,
and I don't think I could ever put
myself in that position again.
NEWS REPORTS: just weeks before
Russia host the winter Olympics
Russia's parliament unanimously
approved a sweeping amnesty
for prisoners
In all, up to 25,000 people
across Russia will be freed,
and that would include those
charged with hooliganism
The Arctic 30 were very high-profile
international protestors,
so it is quite likely that it was
the Arctic 30 case which pushed him
into granting this blanket amnesty
that let all the others go as well.
I'm hopeful that,
because of what happened with us,
it helped some people get
released from a Russian jail.
If that's true - and I believe it
is, because it's convenient for me
to believe that -
if that's true, I think
that's the greatest achievement
of the Arctic 30 experience.
I think that all the major players
probably were quite happy
with the result.
CHEERING
Greenpeace survives on publicity.
I also think Russia did very well
out of it as well.
Not so much the Russian people,
but the Russian state.
I don't think anyone's protested
a Russian oil rig since.
I haven't, that's for sure!
NEWS REPORT: This is not what
the Winter Olympics
are supposed to look like.
Russian Cossacks whipping members of
the dissident punk band Pussy Riot.
Greenpeace and Pussy Riot,
it was like these two cases
was a symbol of a crack.
Russia was on the path to becoming
a totalitarian dictatorship.
The case of the Arctic 30
signal led a real turning point
in Putin's approach to power.
It was one of the clearest signals
of what was to come in Russia.
NEWS REPORT: Russia has now embarked
on the annexation of Crimea.
And things since 2014
went very rapidly downhill.
A Russian court has sentenced
opposition leader
Alexei Navalny to another
lengthy prison sentence.
There's a whole new set of rules
designed to squash
any protest whatsoever.
Russian authorities
have now branded Greenpeace
as an undesirable organisation.
All this to just keep
one person in power.
SCREAMING
In the end, I left Russia because if
you don't have a right to protest,
then you cannot fight
for nothing else.
AIR-RAID SIRENS SOUND
Oil and gas have paid
for Putin's war.
We did not stop Gazprom
from production -
Prirazlomnaya went online while we
were in the cell.
They're continuing to extract oil.
Ancl some of that was coming into
the UK, even after the sanctions.
I do have a fear of how
things are going to look like
if we don't stop this in time.
Sometimes I find it so overwhelming.
I can feel incredibly powerless,
and then I think,
how can I live with myself
if I knew what was coming
but I didn't do anything about it?
I want to be able to look
my son in the eyes,
20 years from now,
and even if we didn't succeed,
I want to be able to look him
in the eyes and tell him
I did everything I could.