On Thin Ice: Putin vs Greenpeace (BBC2)
When part-time anarchists and trust fund socialists with private school educations glue themselves to the tarmac of the M25, to ‘Just Stop Oil’, I sometimes wonder why they don’t go and do it in Moscow.
After all, Russia’s exports of fossil fuels are colossal, dwarfing UK consumption, despite international sanctions imposed after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. A protest in Red Square is bound to be far more effective . . . isn’t it?
On Thin Ice: Putin vs Greenpeace is a first-hand account of what happens when eco-warriors provoke the Kremlin. It also emphasises why, instead of despising Western democracy, Left-wing professional protestors should be profoundly grateful for the freedoms they abuse — because the alternative is ugly.
On Thin Ice: Putin vs Greenpeace is a first-hand account of what happens when eco-warriors provoke the Kremlin
Most of the crew were not so much courageous as hopelessly naive. One woman, a 27-year-old marketing executive called Alex, hadn’t even told her mum and dad in Devon what she was up to
Drawing on video shot by the crew of the Arctic Sunrise, a yacht with an icebreaker’s bow, this series tells the story of the confrontation in 2013 between Greenpeace activists and Russian special forces. After trying to board an oil-drilling platform called the Prirazlomnaya, in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia, the environmentalists were taken prisoner at gunpoint.
Two brave but foolhardy souls who tried to climb up the vast metal scaffolding — intending to attach a rigid plastic tent to the side and claim squatters’ rights — were seized and held hostage. The rest of the 30 sailors retreated to their mothership and were unable to resist as masked gunmen abseiled down from a helicopter hovering overhead.
‘It felt like being in the middle of a James Bond film,’ said one activist. That’s not a Bond film I want to see, where 007 is armed with nothing more than a vegan baguette and the Russians win.
Most of the crew were not so much courageous as hopelessly naive. One woman, a 27-year-old marketing executive called Alex, hadn’t even told her mum and dad in Devon what she was up to.
Gradually, this documentary — which continues tonight — revealed why the Kremlin was so belligeren
That’s the difference between Britain and Russia: the Royal National Lifeboat Institute does not use high-explosive shells
Doomed to failure from the start, this was a poor recruiting advert for Greenpeace. The middle-aged men in charge of the planning were far more interested in filming themselves trying to ‘save the world’ than they were in the safety of their crew.
The Russians were under government orders to stop the protesters. That left no room for compromise. Violence escalated as warning shots were fired — first from pistols, then from automatic rifles, then from gun turrets on the coastguard ship.
That’s the difference between Britain and Russia: the Royal National Lifeboat Institute does not use high-explosive shells.
Gradually, this documentary — which continues tonight — revealed why the Kremlin was so belligerent. More than half Russia’s national budget depends on the gas and oil giant Gazprom, according to the company’s head of communications — a man identified only as ‘Igor’.
An attack on the oil rig was tantamount to an attack on the president himself, he said, ‘because Gazprom is Putin’. A bunch of adrenaline addicts with selfie sticks aren’t going to win that fight.
