Ben Stewart - Don't Trust, Don't Fear, Don't Beg

Frank never doubted he’d do the same, that he’d disobey the order, that he wouldn’t shoot them. And he still thinks that. He knows that. But this place, SIZO-1, is giving him a lesson in the power of fear. Right now he’s not sure what he’d do to get out of this place, but he thinks he might do things he never thought possible. Because he’s scared. Right now, in this place, he’s scared.

13th October

The sign of things to come. Snow has fallen and covered the Pig Pen roof, the loudspeaker and the watchtower. It’s going to get much colder.

In countries across the world the demonstrations against Gazprom are continuing. Protesters picket the Albertina museum in Vienna where an exhibition sponsored by the oil giant has been inaugurated by the curators – with great solemnity – as the Gazprom Collection . In Paris an anti-Gazprom protester hangs for a day in a tent suspended from a rope tied to the underside of the Eiffel Tower. At the Barcolana Autumn Cup Regatta, a yacht race in the Gulf of Trieste in Italy sponsored by Gazprom, protesters in a RHIB hold banners calling for Arctic protection as they speed alongside the company’s entrant – the 35-metre Esimit Europa, emblazoned in Gazprom blue, the sail rendered as one huge logo. The declared mission of the Russian yacht is to ‘unite Europe’ but images of security guards in Gazprom-branded tracksuits trying to stab the Greenpeace boat with a knife succeed only in uniting opinion against the company. [78] http://segelreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/193757266-4e69c8ea-0547-4f60-a28a-ae07a21ea275.jpg

The mother of Gizem Akhan, a 24-year-old activist from Turkey now jailed in SIZO-1, writes an open letter calling on more people to join the movement to free her daughter. ‘They all took a step for the future of this Earth, marched on and stood up for something. We must stand beside them. They must not feel alone.’ Her plea is echoed by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo [79] http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/the-mothers-of-the-disappeared-want-the-arcti/blog/47004/ – the association of Argentine women whose children were among the thirty thousand ‘disappeared’ between 1976 and 1983 by the country’s military junta. The same day Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes to the Russian government calling for the release of the Arctic 30. ‘This is not just an Arctic or a Russian issue,’ he says. ‘The impacts of global warming will be most keenly felt in the developing world.’ [80] http://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/News/news/Desmond-Tutu-joins-the-call-to-free-the-Arctic-30/

Also that day protesters from the pro-Kremlin youth organisation Nashi picket the Greenpeace office in Moscow. Nashi – meaning ‘Ours!’ – numbers tens of thousands of 17–25-year-olds who are dedicated to defending the Putin regime. Its members meet at summer camps across Russia to receive basic military training. The group has been accused of harassing opponents of the Kremlin.

Today Putin’s young supporters are carrying banners depicting the faces of famous Russian Arctic researchers above the slogan ‘REAL DEFENDERS OF THE ARCTIC!’ The campaigners from the Dance Hall invite the Nashi protesters to come inside the building to discuss their issues. The Putin loyalists appear uncertain, then agree to the meeting. Inside the office they drink coffee with Greenpeace campaigners who tell them Russia’s Arctic researchers are certainly heroes, but so are the activists in jail for trying to protect the frozen north. The Nashi protesters say little, finish their biscuits and leave.

The next day eleven Nobel Peace Prize laureates write to Putin demanding the release of the thirty, describing the Arctic as a ‘precious treasure of humanity’. [81] http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/press/releases/Eleven-Nobel-Peace-Prize-winners-write-to-Russian-President-Vladimir-Putin-over-Greenpeace-case/ They are later joined by two more Peace Prize winners – Lech Wałęsa and Aung San Suu Kyi. [82] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xRT7wQiebw Reuters reports that Paolo Scaroni, the CEO of Italian oil giant Eni, which has a multi-billion-euro partnership deal with Gazprom, has asked the Russian company to intervene to free the Arctic 30. [83] http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/17/russia-greenpeace-gazprom-idUSL6N0I73BV20131017

In London John Sauven takes a call from New York. Paul McCartney has heard about the campaign and he wants to help. Putin is a huge Beatles fan, he sat in the front row when McCartney played ‘Back in the USSR’ in Red Square. The Moscow office has been saying for weeks that Paul McCartney is the only person who can get more media coverage than Putin in Russia.

And they’re right. McCartney writes to Putin, and when the letter becomes public the last few paragraphs are printed in newspapers across the country.

Forty-five years ago I wrote a song about Russia for the White Album, back when it wasn’t fashionable for English people to say nice things about your country. That song had one of my favourite Beatles lines in it: ‘Been away so long I hardly knew the place, gee it’s good to be back home.’

Could you make that come true for the Greenpeace prisoners?

Potatoes are bouncing off the walls like silver balls in a pinball machine. Sini is crouched in front of the window with a bag of them between her feet, occasionally glancing back nervously at the cell door then reaching down and selecting the smoothest and roundest of the hoarded vegetables.

The window is dirty glass, set back with a row of thick bars in front of it, and the only way to open it is to pull the ventilation lever which makes a narrow slit open sideways on. She thought she might be able to drop potatoes through that gap, but she can’t reach it. Instead Sini is bouncing them against the wall, trying to make them rebound at such an angle that they’ll ricochet through the gap and tumble into the courtyard below. But it’s impossible. Most of the potatoes are hideously shaped, they’ve been boiled then left to go cold so they have a springy quality that makes their flight utterly unpredictable. They rebound off the wall at obscene angles, sometimes hitting her in the face or landing behind her on the bunk.

For hours she bounces potatoes. But she can’t get it right. They won’t go through the gap. She leans back against the wall, slides down onto the floor and buries her head between her knees.

19th October

Most of my GP goodies bag has gone between the 3 of us. Bit miffed the cheese went so quickly as I was quite keen on that. Still, it’s all share and share alike which keeps the cell on an even keel. One of the guards seems to be walking round with a massive wooden mallet. It’s so big it’s comical. Boris + I get the giggles when we see him. At 18:30 tonight will be exactly 1 calendar month since arrest by FSB Spetsnaz.

Just made a birthday card for Boris. He turned 22 today. He’s up for manslaughter and looking at 8–12 years. It’s one of the saddest most forlorn cards I think I’ve ever written. There was not a single card or letter for him all day. He is never ever getting out of this system. You can just tell it a mile off.

20th October

Reading a book on my bed (approx. 5pm) when I heard Phil’s voice very loud through the hatch of his cell door. He was ranting about being promised his phone call and having waited 3 weeks for it. I could just make out them fobbing him off so I slammed the door of 320 and shouted for them to give him his feckin phone call. He sounded really really upset so I started really slamming the door. The whole hall reverberated. Eventually Phil swore at them saying no one understood a word he was asking. I think he’s at a really low point right now. 3 really young kids, his dad recently died. Poor fucker.