Greenpeace, Pussy Riot Activists 'To Be Freed'

Russian MP's have approved a Kremlin-backed bill that could see the Arctic 30 Greenpeace activists and jailed members of Pussy Riot going home.

The State Duma voted 446-0 in favour of the Kremlin-backed bill.

It will allow investigators to drop charges against the 30 members of Greenpeace's ship detained in Russia's Arctic in September.

The Arctic 30, who include six Britons, were arrested after Russian authorities boarded their vessel Arctic Sunrise following attempts by some of the activists to board an offshore oil platform.

They have been on bail but the 26 non-Russians among them were not allowed to go home.

Greenpeace said a last-minute amendment to the amnesty meant Russia would almost certainly end legal proceedings against 30 people who faced jail terms of up to seven years if convicted over the protest.

Lawyers said the amnesty, which could come into force this week, would lead to the early release of Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina.

Jailed Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina

Their two-year sentences over an anti-Putin protest in a cathedral have been criticised in the West as excessive.

The lower house of parliament passed the amnesty, which President Vladimir Putin proposed to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the passage of Russia's post-Soviet constitution.

The move has been largely viewed as the Kremlin's attempt to soothe criticism of Russia's human rights records ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year.

The measures mainly concern first-time offenders, minors and women with small children.

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