Russia grants amnesty to prisoners

(Vatican Radio) The environmental group Greenpeace says one of its activists detained in Russia's Arctic has been granted amnesty, raising hopes for the other 29 crew to have their cases closed. The festive season amnesty came just hours after two punk band singers were released from prison.

In a statement Greenpeace said as many as 26 foreign nationals could be free this Christmas after one of them was granted amnesty.

In total, some 30 activists were detained in September and charged with hooliganism over a protest against Russian giant Gazprom's oil drilling in the Arctic.

While they were eventually allowed to await the outcome of their trial outside jail, they were not able to leave Russia. Greenpeace said however they will be free "once they get the right stamps in their passports from the migration service."

PROTEST BAND

The announcement comes shortly after two members of a protest punk band were released and reunited in Siberia.

They pledged to work together on human rights and the plight of prisoners.

"We would like to discuss the goals, tasks and structure of our project,” said singer Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. “We want to outline them together and in detail. We both have some ideas about it and would like to transform them into a joint project.”

Fellow band member Maria Alyokhina agreed.

"We did not remain indifferent to the situation of women in jail, to the fact that they are seen as malleable putty. We want to change that,” she added.

CATHEDRAL PROTEST

They were jailed for two years for hooliganism in 2012 after a protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral.

The women denounced their early release under an amnesty as a propaganda stunt by the Kremlin, ahead of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

On Friday former oil Tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was unexpectedly released after nearly a decade in prison on what he called trumped up charges of fraud and tax evasion.

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