Two members of the Russian punk rock group Pussy Riot where release from prison on Monday following an amnesty law that many are calling a “publicity stunt” by the Kremlin just months away from the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich made worldwide headlines when they were arrested on March 3, 2012 after performing a “Punk Prayer” against Russian President Vladimir Putin at Moscow’s Orthodox Cathedral. Since the group already had a reputation for holding numerous protests in support of LGBT and feminists rights, the Orthodox church asked the Russian government to criminalize blasphemy. Later that year all three members would be convicted “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and sentenced to two years in prison.
While Samutsevich would get her sentence appealed, it would take another year and a half before Tolokonnikova and Alekhina would be released from prison.
Now free, Tolokonnikova plans to set up a human rights group to help prisoners. She claims the way the government is run is much like it’s prison system.
“I saw this small totalitarian machine from the inside,” she said after walking out of a Siberian prison in -13 degree Fahrenheit weather. “Russia functions the same way the prison colony does.”
Alekhina was released from a prison in Nizhny Novgorod on Monday and says that if she had the opportunity to serve her sentence out, instead of being released, she would.
“If I had a chance to turn it down, I would have done it, no doubt about that,” she told Dozhd TV. “This is not an amnesty. This is a hoax and a PR move.” According to Alekhina, the amnesty bill covers only 10% of the prison population and very few women.
The European Court of Human Rights is currently reviewing a complaint sent by the band members over their treatment while on trial in Moscow last year. Earlier this month, Russia’s Supreme Court found that a lower court did not fully prove the band member’s guilt and didn’t take into consideration family circumstances when reaching a verdict.
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