Second Pussy Riot member freed

Written By Unknown on Senin, 23 Desember 2013 | 18.19

23 December 2013 Last updated at 06:02 ET
Maria Alyokhina, member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot

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BBC's Pavel Bandakov: "The Olympics are closely connected to what's going on"

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has become the second member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot to freed early from prison under a new amnesty law.

Band member Maria Alyokhina was freed earlier on Monday in Nizhny Novgorod.

Alyokhina said the amnesty was a "PR stunt" ahead of the Winter Olympics and she would rather have stayed in prison.

The women were jailed in August 2012 for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after performing a protest song in Moscow's main cathedral.

The act was seen as blasphemous by many Russians, but their conviction was criticised by rights groups, anti-Putin activists and foreign governments.

Continue reading the main story

Sergei Zakin BBC Russian Service


As soon as Maria Alyokhina stepped through the prison gates she described the amnesty law under which she was released as a "profanation", since it applied only to a minority of convicts.

Most pundits see the amnesty as President Putin's attempt to soften his image in the West and improve his human rights record ahead of the Sochi Olympics in February 2014.

Two days after the amnesty came into force Putin pardoned Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man and his personal foe, in a move that again was widely seen as an attempt to appease the West.

At his Berlin press conference on Sunday, Khodorkovsky appeared to strike a conciliatory tone, vowing to stay out of politics and saying that he did not feel hatred towards the man who finally pardoned him after more than 10 years in jail.

The Pussy Riot members' stance appears to be less serene. Tolokonnikova's husband told the BBC that "the only thing they have acquired over their two years in prison is their confidence to continue fighting Putin's regime even harder".

Alyokhina's first words and actions after being freed serve as a sign that this fight is likely to get more fierce and more personal.

Their sentences were due to end in March 2014, but they have known since last week that their release was imminent under a law signed by the Russian parliament which gave amnesty to some 20,000 prisoners, including mothers. Both have young children.

The amnesty was widely seen as attempt to dampen criticism of Russia's human rights record ahead of the Winter Olympics, being hosted in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in February.

Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky - once Russia's richest man - was also pardoned on Friday and freed after more than 10 years in prison for fraud and tax evasion.

Views unchanged

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova walked out of a prison hospital in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, on Monday afternoon. She was being treated there for unspecified illness.

Journalists waiting outside said she appeared healthy and calm.

Alyokhina had been freed earlier from a jail in Nizhny Novgorod.

Speaking to Russian television after her release, Alyokhina said her views of President Putin had not changed and that the amnesty was "a profanation" and "a PR exercise".

"If I had a choice to refuse [the amnesty], I would have, without a doubt," she added.

Russian media quoted a friend of Alyokhina as saying she had wanted to serve out her sentence as she was concerned for the safety of fellow prisoners and wanted to protect them.

Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were both convicted after performing an obscenity-laced song called Punk Prayer in Moscow's Christ the Saviour cathedral in February 2012.

The song was heavily critical of the Orthodox Church's support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling on the Virgin Mary to "throw Putin out".

A third Pussy Riot protester, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was also jailed, but was released on appeal in October 2012.

Tolokonnikova's husband Pyotr Verzilov earlier told the BBC that news of the women's release "was a bit of an image-lightening process for President Putin".

"The only thing they have acquired over their two years in prison is their confidence to continue fighting Putin's regime even harder, because, well, this is the only thing that can change things in our country," he said.

Charges against 30 people arrested while taking part in a Greenpeace protest at a Russian Arctic offshore oil rig may also be dropped later this week under the amnesty law.

The group - mostly foreign activists - have been charged with hooliganism.

Mr Khodorkovsky's surprise release was approved by Mr Putin last week. He was pardoned on humanitarian grounds, because his mother is seriously ill.

The former tycoon has always insisted his conviction was politically motivated, because of his financial support for opposition parties.

Speaking from Berlin, where he flew after being freed, he said he would stay out of politics, but would do all he could to free Russia's other political prisoners.


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