On Thin Ice: Putin v Greenpeace TV review — Russian roulette in the Arctic

“In a thriving democracy we should welcome civil disobedience.” So says Greenpeace campaigner Dima Litvinov. But in planning a bold mission to occupy an offshore Gazprom-owned Arctic oil rig in September 2013, Litvinov and his team of activists seemed to overlook the fact that Russia is not a functioning democracy, let alone a thriving one. Welcome Greenpeace Putin did not.

On Thin Ice: Putin v Greenpeace, a new BBC documentary series, revisits the extraordinary diplomatic incident in which an unarmed protest ship was seized by Russian forces and its crew held on specious piracy and terrorism charges. Over six punchily edited episodes, the show draws on first-hand accounts of those on board and footage of the raid — daringly filmed and later smuggled off the boat — as well as the insights and analysis of expert commentators. At once a queasy thriller and a revealing survey of Putin’s intensified aggression, it strikes a fine balance between entertainment and illumination. This is engrossing storytelling with a serious, professional tone.

We begin by meeting some of the so-called “Arctic 30”: an improbable, international line-up of characters. Among them are Litvinov (who hails from a family of anti-Soviet and anti-tsarist activists), “the general” Frank Hewetson, the intrepid Finnish campaigner Sini Saarela and communications officer Alex Hazel Harris, whose first direct action with Greenpeace this was.

Whatever one’s views on the methods, their unflinching commitment and composure is hard not to admire. Arresting clips show them facing up to masked commandos; even while being held captive, they held on to their cheer. Later transported to a detention centre in Murmansk, they would stay in appalling conditions for over two months.

Putin’s response to the protest is lucidly contextualised by Igor Volobuev, an ex-Gazprom executive who later joined the Ukrainian army — and whose calls for a non-confrontational reaction were dismissed, he says, as the “words of a loser” — and the former Russian MP Gennady Gudkov, who discusses how the incident fed into Putin’s self-promotion as an uncompromising protector against foreign forces.

The Russian leader sanctioned the group’s release later in 2013, in the run-up to 2014’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, but the documentary makes a persuasive case that this was a grim portent of the intimidation, suppression and belligerence that has since plunged Europe into war.

★★★★☆

On BBC2 from June 9-11 at 9pm and on BBC iPlayer from June 9