MOSCOW, November 28 (RAPSI) - Colin Russell, the Australian Greenpeace activist detained in Russia over an Arctic drilling protest in September, has been released on bail of 2 million rubles ($60,598), RIA Novosti reported Thursday.

On November 18, the detention Russell was extended for 3 months. However, 29 other Greenpeace activists were released on bail. Russell's lawyers appealed this ruling.

The Arctic Sunrise ship was seized by Russian border guards on September 19 in international waters, within Russia's exclusive economic zone, a day after two Greenpeace activists scaled the Prirazlomnaya drilling rig in the Pechora Sea, the southeastern part of the Barents Sea.

The platform, owned by Gazprom Neft Shelf, a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom, is the first ice-resistant stationary oil platform in the world set to produce offshore Arctic oil.

Greenpeace and other environmental groups oppose drilling for oil in the Arctic because they say that it is currently impossible to sufficiently clean up potential oil spills in the region, and that such drilling cannot be economically viable.