A Russian court has reversed the deportation order on a British man who arrived via the Bering Ice, allowing him to continue a global walk.

ADVERTISEMENT

Keith Bushby, a former paratrooper, told The Times of London he was relieved by the decision.

"We were confident because there was a lot of working behind the scenes," he said. "But it was a real nail-biter right to the last."

Bushby and Dmitri Kieffer, who joined him for the crossing in Alaska, arrived in Chukotka on April 1. While they had Russian visas, they were in trouble for arriving in a restricted border area and bypassing official border formalities.

A court two weeks later ordered them deported, which would have forced them to remain out of Russia for at least five years.

Bushby began his walk at the southern tip of South America in 1998. He hopes to return to his home in Hull, England, in 2009 -- via Mongolia and Kazakhstan, among other places.

He has become a popular hero in Russia during his legal debacle, with backing from people like Artur Chilingarov, president of the Russian Association of Arctic Explorers and a member of the Duma.