Russia has started closing the criminal cases against a group of Greenpeace activists charged with hooliganism over an Arctic protest.
Thirty crew members of Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, including New Zealanders Jon Beauchamp and David Haussmann, were arrested in September after two activists scaled an oil rig in the Barents Sea owned by Gazprom to protest against oil prospecting.
Photo: AFP
A Greenpeace spokesman said on Tuesday Russia had closed the case against one crew member, without naming the activist. The BBC reports the man is Anthony Perrett from Wales, who is preparing to leave Russia.
The move, part of a Kremlin-backed amnesty, should pave the way for the other 29 crew to have their cases closed and allow the 26 foreign nationals including to leave Russia, AFP reports.
After their criminal cases are closed, the activists will still need exit visas to leave Russia as they have never officially entered the country.
Their initial arrest came when the Dutch-flagged Arctic Sunrise was seized by the Russian security forces who winched down from a helicopter in a commando-style operation.
They were first detained in the Arctic Circle city of Murmansk and then transferred to Russia's second city of Saint Peterburg.
Courts in Saint Petersburg in November ordered the release of all 30 on bail. Since then they have all been free but unable to leave the city. The Arctic Sunrise ship remains under Russian control in Murmansk.
In apparent defiance of Greenpeace, Gazprom on Friday announced it had begun oil production at the Prirazlomnaya oil rig that had been the target of the activists' actions.
Greenpeace argues that the ageing oil rig is an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen which risks ruining the pristine Arctic ecology of the southern Barents Sea where the deposit is located.
