The investigation into last year’s Arctic 30 protest has been closed.
Russia’s Investigative Committee (IC) terminated the eight-month inquiry that was spurred by a Greenpeace demonstration against oil drilling in Arctic waters in September 2013. Dubbed the ‘Arctic 30’ the 28 activists and two journalists involved spent two months in prison under piracy and hooliganism charges and were released in December with the aid of an international outcry and appeal from the European Courts of Human Rights triggered an amnesty from Russian authorities.
Kumi Naidoo, international executive director of the environmental campaign group, said: “Since this story began, the investigative committee has tried to bend the rule of law to persecute those who dare to oppose Arctic oil drilling.
“Today’s news brings great relief to the Arctic 30 and their families who have faced a year of uncertainty after an entirely peaceful protest. However, we cannot understand how it took the Investigative Committee a year to establish what was clear from the start: that these people are passionate activists, not pirates.”
Over the summer the non-governmental organisation staged protests against Norwegian state-owned oil company Statoil and Shell, which it claimed was planning to drill in the US Arctic next summer
Mr Haidoo added: “We will continue to take action in defence of the Arctic whether in Russia, the US or anywhere else. We have millions of people with us and the powerful wind of change in our sails.”