Arctic 30: activist Colin Russell returning home after Russia grants visa
The Australian activist Colin Russell will finally make his way home after Russian authorities granted the Greenpeace campaigner an exit visa on Friday.
Russell, 59, was one of 30 activists arrested and detained in September for protesting against a Russian oil rig operated by Moscow-based energy company Gazprom in the Pechora Sea.
Known as the Arctic 30, the group, made up of 28 Greenpeace activists and two freelance journalists, had been accused of hooliganism.
The charges were dropped last week after the Russian parliament passed an amnesty law and freed the defendants.
Greenpeace's communications manager, James Lorenz, confirmed Russell, from Woodbridge in Tasmania, had been granted an exit visa on Friday night.
"Colin has received a final piece of the puzzle, which is the exit stamp in his passport," he said.