arctic 30

They're finally home.

An hour ago, Alex, Anthony, Phil, Iain, and Kieron stepped through arrivals at St Pancras International, and are completely free at last.

When six women climbed the Shard everyone knew it was a landmark moment. Two months later 3000 people walked with the world's largest polar bear to Shell's headquarters. Three days after that 28 peaceful activists and two journalists were arrested at gunpoint. We were practically tripping over the landmark moments in 2013.

Big news! The Arctic 30 have been granted amnesty.

Earlier today the Russian government agreed to amend an amnesty bill to include the Arctic 30, and just now the bill was officially adopted by their parliament. This means legal proceedings against them will be halted and they should be home soon.

We've received a reply from the Russian embassy in London in response to the thousands of emails sent in support of the Arctic 30. It's a shame they didn't respond to everyone personally, but any response is always welcome.

It's a short letter from press secretary Artem Kozhin and a much longer Q&A-style document which sets out the Russian government's position, but naturally it's not one that I, or anyone else here, agrees with.

Here are the main claims and allegations, and details on why they're unfounded.