The two jailed activists will be released from prison 'within days'
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he believes that the members of Pussy Riot engaged in activities "humiliating for women".Speaking yesterday (December 19) at a press conference, Putin explained that he felt "pity" for the jailed Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina as they "started to engage in activities which are humiliating for women", reports The Telegraph.
He continued: "It's just a PR campaign but they crossed a line... The court decided to punish them, not for that, but for other actions." Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina will reportedly be freed from prison in Russia within days as part of an amnesty approved by Russia's parliament to mark the 20th anniversary of Russia's post-Soviet constitution. The amnesty will lead to the freeing of 500,000 prisoners, including the 'Arctic 30' Greenpeace protesters who were arrested earlier this year when some of the activists tried to scale Russia's first offshore oil platform.
Speaking about the amnesty yesterday, Putin added: "The amnesty has nothing to do with Greenpeace or this band... We need to humanise, to make our criminal code more humane to mark the 20 year anniversary of the constitution."
The feminist punk collective's members were given two-year sentences in August 2012 after their now infamous "punk prayer" protest at Moscow's Cathedral Of Christ The Savior. They were taken to a prison camp in Berniki in the remote Ural Mountains.
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were both due to be released in 2014, having served some of their sentence prior to their trial. Earlier this year Alyokhina went on hunger strike to protest prison conditions, demanding officials got rid of the locks on the doors of workshops. She spoke to NME from prison, revealing that she didn't expect to be released before 2014.
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