Previous to my earlier posts, I now have to be extremely cautious what I photograph and where. On my usual trail walk I went a bit further than normal, some 5km. There are numerous buried gas pipes and a few very small (20m2) gas hubs which are enclosed in barbed wire and a bigger distribution centre belonging to Gazprom.
2 weeks ago today, I was arrested on a public footpath by armed Gazprom security and detained. My broken Russian and their slightly, but not much better English, helped me understand that I was suspected of 'photographing an installation of the Russian Republic'. My camera, thankfully just a pocket digi and not our D5 with 600m lens was taken away for examination.
I had no papers with me, I hardly see anyone on this trail so didn't expect to need them and my fiance was in Moscow but via my mobile I was able to alert her to my adventure. I asked why I was being held and how long for, the stony faced reply did not comfort me 'we wait for the big boss to see if we will prepare papers' in other words if I would be charged with anything.
Time passed and I was at this point expecting to be released once they'd seen what was on my camera but I was in for shock. After 2 hours, an armed militia in Ninja like black uniforms, complete with machine guns arrived, handcuffed me and took me away in a police car.
Eventually, Anastasia's father was contacted and arrived at the police station with my papers and they seemed satisfied that this sweaty, shirtless guy, covered in insect spray and with a camera full of butterfly pictures was in fact not James Bond. Thank god I didn't have the big camera with all the aircraft pics is all I can say!
The Gazprom facility in which I was detained is much bigger than I realised but isn't visible from where I walk. Once inside, the size was more obvious. A large display cabinet showed off football trophies alongside WW2 memorobilia presumably unearthed during the laying of gas pipes. Helmets, bullets, grenades etc but on the wall opposite, was a poster making it clear why I'd been detained, terrorism.
This is a very paranoid country right now and I'll have to tread carefully in future, even on an obscure trail I now think of as home.
Andy
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