MOSCOW, December 26. /ITAR-TASS/. The Greenpeace activists, who had been convicted in Russia for an attempted intrusion on board the Russian oil developing platform and later released under amnesty, might get exit visas on December 27 and leave Russia on the same day, the press service of the Federal Migration Service said Thursday.

Twenty-two Greenpeace activists have applied for their visas already. The visas will be issued in the shortest possible time, maybe tomorrow, the press service said. The foreign Greenpeace activists might leave Russia at once, it said.

Earlier it was reported that the thirty crewmembers also include several citizens from the countries enjoying a visa-free regime with Russia. These people do not require exit visas, but they still need to receive entry stamps in their passports.

The 28 Greenpeace activists and two freelance journalists were arrested by Russian authorities in September after they attempted to scale Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya oil rig in the Barents Sea.

They were seized by Russian security guards and their vessel was towed to the port of Murmansk. The protesters - who are nationals of 18 different countries, including four Russians - were initially taken into custody on charges of piracy, later downgraded to hooliganism.

After two months in a Russian jail the Greenpeace activists have been released on bail and are currently staying at a hotel in St. Petersburg.