MOSCOW, December 27. /ITAR-TASS/. The amnestied crewmembers of the Greenpeace protest ship Arctic Sunrise will get exit visas before the end of the day and will be able to leave Russia at once, a spokesman for the Russian Federal Migration Service told Itar-Tass on Friday.

“They will be granted transit visas to leave Russia before the end of the day on Friday,” the spokesman said, adding that the activists would be able to return to their home countries immediately after that.

Nine of the “Arctic 30” activists who stormed the Russian drilling rig in northern waters has already left the country, the campaign group told Itar-Tass in St. Petersburg.

Earlier this week, Russia formally dropped criminal charges against all crew aboard the ship, released under a Kremlin-backed amnesty.

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

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