Extract from ABC News website:
Updated
A Tasmanian Greenpeace activist who was detained for
three months in Russia over an Arctic oil protest is back on home soil,
and says he stands by his actions.
Colin Russell and 29 other
protesters were arrested at gunpoint during a September protest against
oil drilling by Russian energy giant Gazprom.The so-called Arctic 30 were charged with hooliganism, which carried a potential seven-year jail term, but were freed last month after under a Russian amnesty.
Mr Russell touched down in Hobart on Thursday night, and joked that he would not be doing anything "naughty" in Russia for a while.
He hailed the protest for sending Greenpeace's Arctic campaign to a global audience, and said he plans to continue his work with the organisation.
"I've been doing it for 14 years so I'm not going to stop doing what I know best," he said.
"I'm trying to give a future for my kids, for my Grand-kids. We all need to stand together on that. If I can lead the way, great."
The 59-year-old described his jail cell as being similar to Port Arthur, and said he was exposed to tuberculosis inside its walls.
"Everything was run down, everything was not really clean. The bloke in the first floor had tuberculosis and AIDS. There were a lot of people there that shouldn't be there," he said.
Mr Russell said he will undergo blood tests for the disease for the next two years.
He said although he "lost quite a few kilos", he was not "harshly treated" and coped by reading and keeping his mind occupied.
But Mr Russell said a young Russian boy in the jail was not as lucky.
"He didn't read or do anything like that. He was mentally not handling it - he was walking up and down the cell all day. It wasn't a nice place," he said.
Australia 'could have gone into bat a little bit more for me'
He said Russia's reaction to the protest was "a bit overdone", and said the Australian Government could have done more to help him."Australia was going to let me go through Russia's due legal process, but it just doesn't exist," he said.
"If you're accused in Russia you're guilty so it wasn't going to happen, it was going to be a political end.
"And I thought after the Itmos ruling maybe they should have gone into bat a little bit more for me, I think it was too little too late."
However, he paid tribute to "brilliant" consular officials.
"Those people are just gems, they kept me well informed, and kept me supplied with raisins, dried fruits, and books," he said.
"I'd [also] really like to thank everyone in Australia for backing me... looking after my family, mowing my lawns, walking my dog."
Mr Russell, who visited Amsterdam before returning to Australia, was flanked by his wife Christine and daughter Madeliene.
His wife said that while she would not let him out of her sight in "the near distant future", she was proud of him.
"It's brought a spotlight on what's happening up in the Arctic and I think that validates why Col was there and how important it is," she said.
Gazprom last month announced it had begun oil production at the Prirazlomnaya oil rig that had been the target of the activists' actions.
Greenpeace argues that the rig is an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen that risks ruining the pristine Arctic ecology of the southern Barents Sea where the deposit is located.
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