One Member of Pussy Riot Released from Prison, Other's Release Expected Shortly
One member of Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot has been released from prison, and the other is expected to be release shortly, according to a lawyer representing one of the women.
.One member of Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot has been released from prison, and the other is expected to be release shortly, according to a lawyer representing one of the women.
Maria Alyokhina walked free earlier today and the press is now waiting on the release of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. Both were convicted on charges of hooliganism in 2012 and were serving sentences set to end next March before Russian President Vladimir Putin granted amnesty to the pair, among others.
First thing Tolokno sees in minutes pic.twitter.com/L6uNXMdQiq
— Masha Vassilieva (@mashavassilieva) December 23, 2013The saga of the band members has riled up free speech activists protesting their unfair treatment. Open letters describing captivity have not portrayed Russia's penal system kindly. As Newsweek reported last week:
“Sewing Shop No. 2,” Alyokhina wrote, “is a virtually unventilated space with an exhaust pipe that leads to a pile of manure situated 5-7 meters from it. During the summer, women experience difficulty in the process of sewing due to the abundance of flies, the smell, and the rats darting between their legs. The floor is caving in, the plaster is falling out, several of the machines lack safety guards, and on most, there is a weak grounding of the electrical wires. There is a lack of running water; there is one faucet for 100 people, water doesn’t flow from it, and it has to be brought in buckets from the administrative building.”
The first thing that Alyokhina apparently did upon release was meet with human rights activists. A reporter for NBC says that she will not meet with the press before meeting with Tolokonnikova.