Behind the Scenes with the Arctic 30 Support Team - ENGLISH VERSION

What we have in Murmansk is a team of about 15 people, probably the majority of them now coming from the Russian office and others coming from Greenpeace offices around the world, who have several main tasks, the first one being taking care of the legal coordination so that the Arctic 30 receive the best legal defence that they deserve. On top of that, the team takes care of organising duty of care, so making sure that our people feel as comfortable as possible in these very difficult circumstances. And on top of that, we try to make sure that the world knows what's going on in Murmansk, so communicating through images, pictures, video and other work to the outside world. There has never been a case of this magnitude in Russia really, generally. So we have over 30 lawyers in place, and of course these lawyers have background and experience in criminal law in Russia, but also have some knowledge of international human rights law and other areas of law which are of relevance here, including maritime law. Each lawyer has his or her client, so the lawyers help the detainees, represent them throughout the legal proceedings and also act as liaison between them and people who are external to the prison, because only lawyers can visit the Arctic 30 in the prison. So they are a very important life link for them. There is a very special atmosphere in Moscow. For me it is very important to have an opportunity to be in Murmansk now and to help as much as I can. My work in Moscow is closely connected to the communication with people. And here I am sure that I can really bring... Most people in Murmansk have volunteered to be there. Most people are there because of the feeling of injustice that they feel. There are quite a lot of emotional moments where you can say a few words or pat someone's shoulder and show them that there is a big support for them coming from all over the world. And probably the only thing they see are the couple of Greenpeace people with the Greenpeace t-shirts in the courtroom, but I think that's already a very, very important role for the team there.