01x03 - Episode 3

[bunniefuu]

This program me contains some

strong language.

I expected to be spending 48 hours

in a detention centre,

and then to be released.

I grabbed, like, a toothbrush,

some pants and socks,

and that was basically it.

I didn't imagine it would go

so wrong.

It was an incredibly daring mission.

It needed to be clone.

But the plan, I think

you could say, went to sh*t.

g*nf*re

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 b*mb here.

How the hell

are we going to get them out?

The whole situation is overwhelming.

It's a lot to process

in that moment.

Never in my right mind would

I have imagined all of this.

We've just been boarded by the FSB.

They're holding

the crew at gunpoint,

they've taken control of the ship.

And I was like, all of this

to tackle a bunch

of Greenpeace hippies?!

Really?!

We were all taken down to the bottom

of the ship, put in the mess.

So, they searched us to make

sure that we didn't have anything

on us, like mobile phones, footage,

like SD cards, that kind of thing.

I knew they were going to take all

the phones, all the radios,

but I managed to hide my phone.

So, I started to film

what was happening.

OK, uh, right, uh, we have

a suggestion that we can be polite,

if it helps us

But in the middle

of the Arctic Ocean,

there was no connection.

I couldn't make any phone call,

and they had disconnected

all the satellite phones.

So, there was absolutely no

connection with the outside world.

Very soon after the FSB

took over our ship,

they wanted us to sail to Russia,

but we refused.

And that's when the FSB decided

to tow our ship to Murmansk

the closest port in Russia.

We were looking at five days

on the ship, with armed commandos.

We were all in the mess,

and one of the clever moves

we'd made before we set off

was we had run a phone from

the radio room

down into the mess.

We'd managed to wire it directly

to the satellite link.

Thank God, they hadn't noticed.

So, we still had means of contacting

the outside world.

Ancl so, you've got some officers

keeping an eye on us,

but none actually

in the mess itself.

So, the phone,

it was just above, like,

the coffee station, where we would

make our coffee and tea.

We grabbed, like, a dishcloth,

and hung it over it,

so they wouldn't notice it.

Ancl then we took the cord,

you could kind of extend it

through to the actual

kitchen itself,

completely out of sight

from any of the officers.

Having access to the phone,

just absolutely amazing.

Getting any kind of news

out from the ship,

it's a really important thing.

We didn't know how long we were

going to be seized for, um, but we

sure as hell knew that someone was

going to be interested in the story.

Ancl so, everybody was surrounding

me, and they were looking

down the corridor to make sure

that none of the guards came in.

It was a little bit like a scene

from the Great Escape,

where everybody was trying to act

incredibly normal

while trying to hide what

we were really doing.

And I thought, "f*ck, f*ck,

what do I do? What do I do? OK,"

so I rang Ben Stewart.

Ben Stewart is the press officer

at Greenpeace UK.

I think, probably, it was about 3am

or 4am in the UK at the time.

I think he was at a nightclub!

My phone started ringing and

I looked at it, and it had, like,

this kind of 15-digit number or

something that I didn't recognise.

It was like You know,

it was like a bar code or something.

I just heard Frank trying to convey

information as quickly as he could.

"Ben, Ben, mate,

how's it going? All right?

"Yeah, we've just been boarded.

We're all under arrest,

"g*ns everywhere. It's gone nuts!"

And he said there's about 20

of them, they're special forces,

they were heavily armed.

You know, they were everywhere.

Like, you know, sh*t was going down.

And he sounded, like,

deeply adrenalized,

and I was quite deeply drunk,

and sobered up very, very quickly.

And he said, "We're being towed

to Murmansk,

"it's ging to be five days."

And then he said, "I've got to go,

I've got to go," and hung up.

And I kind of thought,

"What was that?" It sounded bad,

it sounded serious.

As soon as Frank hung up,

I just thought we have to

get the story out.

And I thought, like, this is going

to run everywhere.

High drama on the high seas today.

Russian security forces have seized

control of a Greenpeace ship.

Now, a Greenpeace ship has been

stormed by armed Russian guards

in the Arctic Sea.

It was a big international story

and, from our point of view,

a peaceful action that was met

with brutal violent force.

This was a gross

overreaction by the Russians,

but also what they've done

is not legal.

Greenpeace says its boat

was in international waters

and has been seized illegally.

You're just not allowed to board

a ship in international waters,

like the Russians did.

They had no right to be on our ship.

Very early on, we found out

that it was going to be

the Russian Investigative Committee

that was in charge of the case.

And I knew enough about Russia

to know

that if it's the Investigative

Committee that's after you,

then that's of some concern.

This is not a local cop

in a Columbo jacket.

They're like a kind

of political police force.

It felt like it was

coming from the top, from Moscow.

I was a member

of Russian Parliament

and a deputy chairman

of the committee for security.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

I was involved in the protest

against the falsified elections.

Yeah, this was the feeling of 2012,

of, like, the freedoms

we were enjoying are going away.

There were big protests.

I mean, all around Russia.

We hoped it's possible to find

a way to fight it.

Police have moved in and cleared

the crowd out.

They're not tolerating any of it.

The parliament published

so many repressive laws. There was,

like, a big amount of people

arrested for throwing a lemon

touching the cop's shoulder.

To risk ending up in prison,

where t*rture is like

an unfortunate part of normality,

it made me and people around me,

like, think twice, or more,

before you do an action.

We were under tow to Murmansk,

and we still had the phone.

After talking to Ben Stewart,

we tried another number

and halfway through

that conversation

.. | just heard the physical

line being plunked out

of the server in the bridge.

They'd found it. They'd seen a light

flashing and they'd pulled it.

And that was that.

That was the last phone call we had.

We were very cut off then.

To make matters worse,

at this point, we were still

missing two of our crew.

Sini and Crusoe,

who'd climbed the rig,

were still being

held by the Russian coastguard.

I did worry about how

they were coping.

On the coastguard vessel,

they separated me and Crusoe.

I'm in a cabin with several men

but at least nothing had happened

to me during the night.

At that point,

I was really worried about Crusoe.

I didn't know where they're keeping

him, are they just beating him up?

There were windows or portholes, but

they were all closed, so there was

nothing I could see, and not much

I could hear. In what direction

the ship is going, or what time

of the day it is, I had no clue.

But then one of the soldiers

that had been guarding me,

he said something like "home"

to me,

and then they brought me

to the deck

and then Crusoe was there as well.

He looked OK.

I was really happy to see him.

And then they started driving us

into the Arctic Sunrise.

I was, like, really relieved to see

that it's floating,

but when the coastguard boat drove

alongside the ship,

I was a bit like,

"Why is nobody on the deck?"

And I was like,

"This is really odd."

You could just, like, sense this

feeling of, like,

not everything is OK on this ship,

or it's not like

it's supposed to be.

And then we come to the main

accommodation deck

there's soldiers

with g*ns everywhere.

And then I was like,

"OK, the ship is arrested."

And then we are

brought into the mess room

and every one of us

is sitting in the mess room.

Oh, mate, it's so good to see you!

When Simi and Crusoe came

back into the mess,

everyone just went to hug them,

and to check that they were OK.

And there was, like,

big cheers and joy.

I could now see that

everyone is OK,

which was absolutely wonderful.

I was so, so relieved

to get them back,

cos during the action I'd left

them there in a situation

that deteriorated, and I wish

I'd been there with them.

We were all just relieved to be back

together again, united as the 30.

It felt like we could do this,

because we were in it together.

After Sini and Crusoe came back,

you know, the atmosphere

was a bit more calm.

I've still got this GoPro,

so we filmed with it

which was great,

cos there was nothing else to do.

We were stuck in there for hours.

Like, all night,

and sitting around, bored.

Every clay for five clays

in the same room.

A lot of games are being played -

Uno, Scrabble, Patience -

anything to pass the time.

I remember, actually,

we were playing charades,

and I remember the commandos

were looking at us like,

"OK, we have g*ns here,

and you're playing charades."

But, you know, what to do other

than, uh, trying to k*ll time?

Yeah, the atmosphere on board

while we were being towed was OK.

For me, it was a few clays off work,

really, so I was quite happy.

We were reading books

and watching movies.

And what can you do,

you know?

You're, you're basically,

uh, on a cruise.

You know, now it feels, like, OK,

we can just sit around

and drink beer and relax.

You know, this is about to be over.

We'll be locked up

for a couple of days in Russia,

and then eventually thrown

out of the country.

And soon

we can all go home.

After Frank told me that they

were being towed to Russia,

the general assumption was still

that they would get to Murmansk,

and they would probably be released

and kicked out the country.

However, one of things that was

making us think this might be

more serious was this kind of

Russian state line.

There were these stories coming

out in Russia about how

they needed to raid our ship because

they hadn't been sure

we weren't trying to blow up

an oil rig.

The Russians are saying

that the pod was a b*mb.

So, we were determined

to fight this.

This claim that they say it's an

unexploded device or something like

that, it's incredibly disingenuous

of the Russian authorities.

They know exactly what it was,

it's a survival pod,

it's something that

keeps people warm.

The pod was not a b*mb.

It didn't look like a b*mb,

but if you're sitting in Volgograd

watching TV that evening,

you were being told that

it might have been a b*mb.

If I think about 2013,

most of the media were, like,

financed directly from the state.

But growing up in the '90s,

we had lots of independent

media organisations.

But when Putin came to power,

it was taken over.

From then on, if you turn

on the news,

it's justit's pure propaganda.

The problem is that they're really

good in what they are doing.

Like, my parents are watching

this and they believe it.

Yeah.

We're in a story w*r here

against the Russians.

Everything ratcheted up a level.

There was just this kind of growing

sense that this is different.

When we were being towed to

Murmansk, we had no idea

what was being said and done

about us and about the situation.

But all together in that mess room,

we were quite calm.

But the closer, when we got to

Murmansk, something was changing.

They pulled out all

the communication lines,

but there was one phone that

they had missed - Faiza's.

But we were out at sea,

and you couldn't get a signal.

So, we hid it in a bag of rice,

we also hid it under a bed,

we changed the hiding

location all the time.

just waiting to get

closer to land.

My emotions,

they were all over the place.

I've got a GoPro camera with

footage of an ill*gal boarding.

This is the only copy

of that footage.

They're probably going to search

the whole ship.

I needed to get that footage

somewhere safe

but how?

I remember, as we were coming in

to Murmansk, I was getting a bit

more anxious about it -

if they were going to deploy

a helicopter and 20 soldiers.

I was apprehensive about what

was going to happen next.

I remember one of the commandos,

he was the one whose

English was the best.

I went to him to ask him, "Are we

being charged with anything,

"if so, what are the charges?"

And he just kept telling, "I cannot

tell you what the charges are,

"but I can tell you that

you are detained."

It was quite strange.

Where's a good stashing place?

You know, maybe

I need to downsize it a bit,

take the memory card out

and hide that.

But now what the hell

do I do with it?

I kept asking the commando,

"What are the charges?"

And I could tell every time

I would ask the question,

he would be like

SIGHS

He seemed very stressed out.

It was, for me,

one of the first signs, like,

there could be

a lot of attention for this.

We were unarmed,

we were cooperating.

For me, there didn't seem any other

reason to be stressed out,

other than strings were being

pulled from high above.

Suddenly, there were a little

flash of inspiration.

I could stash the SD

card in the insole of my shoe.

Cut a little slot right in the side

and poked it in.

Quite a good little spot.

All I know is it's

significant footage.

Whatever happens,

that needs to be seen.

I remember, the night before

we arrived in Murmansk,

we finally got signal.

And the first thing I did

was I called my mum and dad.

Before going,

I hadn't told them about the plan.

They were astounded to hear from me.

I think one of them said,

like, "You didn't tell me

"you were going to

an oil rig in Russia."

just to hear their voices,

it was reassuring.

My clad told me that he'd clone

several interviews with journalists.

joining us now from Exeter

is Cliff Harris.

Very good morning to you,

thanks very much for joining us.

At that point,

I was a bit taken aback

because we didn't

really have insight

into what was going on outside.

Was she concerned about the trip

they were doing?

Not, not at all.

She wanted to see polar bears,

and she was excited about the trip.

But we never thought this would

actually happen to this extent.

They're even interviewing

my parents.

Wow! This is really a big deal.

It's like being in this

kind of strange dream.

It doesn't really feel like it's

happening to you, everything

that's kind of like

going on around you.

It was really hard to sleep

that night.

Anxiously thinking about what

was going to happen to us.

Approaching Murmansk

it felt somehow ghostly.

It was very military.

It's very industrial.

When we arrived in Murmansk,

they told us that they

were going to take us

to a detention centre.

I grabbed like, a toothbrush,

some pants and socks,

and that was basically it.

We didn't take much with us at all.

It felt like we were going to

go into a cell for 48 hours,

and then we'll be released.

We were then taken off the ship.

There were police everywhere,

I think there were clogs barking.

Soldiers.

Er, with g*ns.

It was It was heavy.

The level of officers

surrounding us was

It was quite extreme.

I remember boarding this,

like, old Soviet kind of bus.

Like, this real rickety thing.

When we got to the detention centre,

there were just, like,

lights and cameras everywhere.

It really hit me that

it was quite serious

when I saw how many photographers

were around that bus.

And it was like, "Oh, God, this is a

bit This is a bit much, surely."

And it was quite intimidating.

So, then they took us into court,

and we're kind of like

walking up the stairs

of this building,

talking about what we're going to

do when we get back onto the ship.

You know, we can't

wait for a shower, all of that,

and to kind of call our families.

Ancl it's still very, at this stage,

kind of taking in the situation,

and just making light of it.

I remember being in the court.

We were all in different cells,

waiting cells, next to each other.

So, we could hear the others talk.

And I think it was Paul,

one of the first crew members

to come down from the court

back to the waiting cell

and then he started to shout,

"I got two months!"

And I was like, "This is not funny,

guys. This is not funny."

And then another one came down.

"I got two months!"

And that's actually

the first time, uh,

I heard of the piracy charges.

If you're found guilty of piracy

it means 10 to 15 years

in prison.

And that's when it started

to kick in

that they were going to get us.

I'd already been telling myself

how do I get through

48 hours in a prison cell,

not like15 years.

And I just kept thinking

about my mum, and my poor mum,

and what have I clone to my mum?

Well, the panic was

starting to grow.

I mean, I was terrified.

A court in the Russian Arctic

port of Murmansk has ordered

Greenpeace activists should be

detained for up to two months

while they're the subject

of a piracy investigation.

So, I watched the Six O'clock News,

and suddenly,

"f*cking hell, it's Frank's face!"

They're in this courtroom,

behind these cages

and they look worried.

One by one, a court in Murmansk

charged 30 activists with piracy.

They now face a maximum

sentence of 15 years in jail.

This is absolutely catastrophic!

Ancl there was just panic and fear.

just thinking, "What the hell

has happened to my life?

"How did I get here?"