Russia closes first case against Greenpeace activists

Russia has closed the criminal case against one of the 30 crew members of a Greenpeace ship who were charged with hooliganism over a protest against Gazprom oil drilling in the Arctic, the group said Tuesday.

The move, part of a Kremlin-backed amnesty, should pave the way for the other 29 crew to have their cases closed and then allow the 26 foreign nationals charged in the saga to finally leave Russia.

"The first of the Arctic 30 has today heard the good news that the Investigative Committee has closed its criminal case against them," a Greenpeace spokesman told AFP, naming the activist as Anthony Perrett of Britain.

After their criminal cases are closed, the activists will still need exit visas to leave Russia as they have never officially entered the country on their Arctic Sunrise protest ship.

"They will be free to leave Russia once they get the right stamps in their passports from the migration service," said the Greenpeace spokesman in a statement to AFP.

"We know that getting those stamps would be the best Christmas present for the Arctic 30 and we hope it can occur quickly, but until such time as they do, we cannot say when they will leave."

Russia had held the 30 crew members since September after two activists scaled an oil rig in the Barents Sea owned by Gazprom to protest against oil prospecting.

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 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. Since then they have all been free but unable to leave the city. The Arctic Sunrise ship remains under Russian control in Murmansk.

Greenpeace said Perrett, from the city of Newport in Wales, has now requested an exit visa from the Federal Migration Service to allow him to leave Russia. He will hear back from the Service on Thursday to collect his visa, it added.

"It's time to go home, it's time to get back to Wales, and I just got one big step closer," Greenpeace quoted Perrett as saying.

He added he was "proud" of what he did. "The Arctic is melting before our eyes and yet the oil companies are lining up to profit from its destruction," he said.

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.

Gazprom -- already owner of the world's largest natural gas reserves and a growing presence in the oil sector -- says it planned to produce six million tonnes of crude per year (120,000 barrels per day) at the site by 2021.

The arrest of the so-called Arctic 30 -- who hail from 18 different countries -- risked becoming another bone of contention in increasingly tense relations between Russia and the West.

A photo journalist and video reporter were among those detained. Along with the 26 foreigners, there are four Russian citizens.

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.

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Mariah Carey criticised by activists for Angola concert

US singer Mariah Carey has aroused the indignation of human rights activists after performing in front of Angola's veteran President Jose Eduardo dos Santos for a reported $1 million.

The Human Rights Foundation accused the "All I Want For Christmas Is You" hit singer of having been "purchased" to entertain one of Africa's wealthiest families in one of the world's poorest nations.

"Mariah Carey can't seem to get enough dictator cash, reportedly more than $1 million this time," said the group's Thor Halvorssen, citing an earlier show for one of former Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi's sons.

Carey performed for two hours on Sunday at a gala in Luanda for the Red Cross which raised at least $65,000 for the charity, according to the state news agency Angop.

The agency's website shows Carey singing in a Father Christmas-inspired red mini-dress with white trim and posing with Dos Santos and his daughter Isabel.

The event was sponsored by a mobile phone company owned by Isabel Dos Santos -- a billionaire whom Forbes lists as Africa's seventh richest person -- who also is the charity's president.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos has governed the war-ravaged southern African nation for 34 years since independence from Portugal.

He retained the post for the first time through the ballot box last year after general elections won by his party.

Amid growing criticism of his rule, there are frequent outcries from civil society over police violence and crackdowns.

Anti-corruption lobbyist Rafael Marques de Morais pointed to the death of an activist in November who had been posting flyers for missing activists.

"How does Mariah Carey, the artist and humanist, who so often speaks about human rights, feel about that?" he asked.

Angola is Africa's second oil producer after Nigeria but is ranked as the world's 153rd most corrupt state out of 177 countries.

"It is the sad spectacle of an international artist purchased by a ruthless police state to entertain and whitewash the father-daughter kleptocracy that has amassed billions in ill-gotten wealth while the majority of Angola lives on less than $2 a day," said Halvorssen.

In 2008, Carey performed for late Libyan dictator Kadhafi's son Seif and three years later said she felt "horrible and embarrassed".

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Greenpeace says Russia won't let activists go home

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian investigators have indicated foreign activists facing trial for a protest against Arctic oil drilling cannot leave the country, meaning they won't be home for Christmas despite an international court ruling, Greenpeace said on Friday.

Twenty-six foreigners from 17 countries are among the 30 people arrested on the Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise after a protest in which environmental activists tried to scale Russia's first offshore oil platform in the Arctic.

They face up to seven years in prison on hooliganism charges, but were released on bail last month by courts in St Petersburg and hoped to be able to go home pending trial or further action by investigators that requires their presence.

But in a letter to one of the activists, the federal Investigative Committee rejected a request for it to seek exit visas for the non-Russians, Greenpeace said.

The committee "has written to one of the 30 - Anne Mie Jensen of Denmark - indicating that they are not free to leave the country," the Netherlands-based environmental group said in a statement.

"Lawyers for Greenpeace expect all of the non-Russian defendants to be treated in the same way by the authorities, meaning they would now be forced to stay in St Petersburg for Christmas and possibly well beyond," it said.

The Investigative Committee declined immediate comment.

Greenpeace says the protest was peaceful and the charges unfounded. The arrest of the activists, who were held in jail for two months and initially risked up to 15 years in prison on piracy charges, has drawn criticism from the West.

The U.N. maritime tribunal ruled on November 22 that the Greenpeace ship and its crew must be allowed to leave Russia, but Moscow declined to take part in the case lodged by the Netherlands and has suggested it would defy the ruling.

ARCTIC FOCUS

Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney wrote to President Vladimir Putin last month to seek his help in securing their release and said it would be great if they could be home with their families in time for Christmas, celebrated in many countries on December 25.

"We were seized in international waters and brought to Russia against our will, then charged with a crime we didn't commit and kept in jail for two months," Greenpeace quoted Arctic Sunrise captain Peter Willcox, an American, as saying.

"A respected international court says we should be allowed to go home ... but we can't get visas to leave the country."

Russia's Federal Migration Service has said it would not issue visas until it receives a direct request from the Investigative Committee, Greenpeace said.

Moscow says activists endangered lives and property in the protest at the state-controlled energy giant Gazprom's Prirazlomnaya platform in the Pechora Sea, a key element of Russia's plans to develop the Arctic.

Putin last week ordered his military to increase its focus on the resource-rich region Arctic, where Russia is vying for control with Canada, the United States, Denmark and Norway.

Production at the field served by Prirazlomnaya, Russia's first Arctic offshore oil project, is due to begin this month.

The foreign activists include citizens of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States.

(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Alister Doyle)

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