6 more Greenpeace activists leave Russia

Five British Greenpeace activists and one Canadian flew out of Russia on Friday following an amnesty which halted their prosecution for a protest against oil drilling in the Arctic, the environmental group said. The activists took off on a plane heading for Paris from Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo airport precisely 100 days after they were first detained in September, a Greenpeace spokesman told AFP. On board the plane are Anthony Perrett, Phil Ball, Iain Rogers, Alex Harris and Kieron Bryan -- all British citizens -- and Alexandre Paul of Canada. Seven of 30 activists charged in the probe have now left Russia after Dmitri Litvinov, a Swedish-American, left Saint Petersburg for Helsinki on Thursday. Four of the so-called Arctic 30 are Russian nationals. "We're leaving Russia, it's over, we're finally truly free," Harris said in comments before leaving, quoted by Greenpeace, saying she was "grateful and humbled" by the support she received. "I promise I will repay those people by using my freedom to stand up for the Arctic," she added. Their initial arrest came in September 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 initially detained in the Arctic Circle city of Murmansk and then transferred to Russia's second city of Saint Peterburg. It was courts in Saint Petersburg that in November ordered the release of all 30 on bail after over two months in detention. Their departure from Saint Petersburg was then made possible by the Kremlin-backed amnesty. The Arctic Sunrise ship remains under Russian control in Murmansk. All to have exit visas The arrest of the Arctic 30 -- who hail from 18 different countries -- risked becoming another bone of contention in increasingly tense relations between Russia and the West. Russia's Federal Migration Service has said that by the end of Friday all the 26 foreigners will have been given exit visas, enabling them to leave Russian territory. Greenpeace said the activists will continue to leave Russia Friday and among them is expected to be US citizen Peter Willcox, the captain of the Arctic Sunrise. Willcox is a veteran Greenpeace activist who was captain of its ship the Rainbow Warrior when it was bombed by the French secret service in port in New Zealand in 1985. Dutch Greenpeace activist Faiza Oulahsen, who is also preparing to leave, told AFP earlier Friday she had "no regrets" over the protest and it had made her "even more dedicated" to saving the Arctic. "I did not spend two months in a cell for nothing. I spent two months in a cell for standing up for something that I believe in," she said. The Russian parliament had passed amendments to the initial Kremlin amnesty apparently specifically aimed at allowing the "Arctic 30" to benefit from it, stipulating that cases on those charges be closed even before reaching trial or verdict. The two jailed members of Pussy Riot punk band, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, were freed on Monday after benefitting from the same amnesty. The amnesty comes less than two months before the start of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, and critics have described it as an attempt by the Kremlin to shore up Russia's human rights image ahead of the Games. 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.