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Sergey Ponomarev / AP
Freed feminist punk group Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich, center, speaks outside a court in Moscow Wednesday.
MOSCOW -- Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich said Wednesday the punk band would continue its political protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"We are not finished, nor are we going to end our political protest," she said in an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. "The situation in the country has deteriorated since our performance and the trial itself is a testimony to that."
A Russian appeals court on Wednesday upheld the two-year jail sentences handed down to two members of punk band Pussy Riot for a protest against Vladimir Putin in a cathedral, but freed a third member by suspending her sentence.
A Moscow City Court judge said the court was leaving the sentences in place for Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Maria Alyokhina, 24, and issuing a suspended sentence for Samutsevich, 30.
Samutsevich told CNN that Pussy Riot still exists, but added that the band will be more "cautious" in the future when staging anti-Putin events.
"We have to act in such a way that [the Russian authorities] do not learn about concerts ahead of time ... and arrest us," she said.
The three women were convicted in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for belting out a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main Orthodox cathedral imploring the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.
"Of course I am very happy to be out and to be free," Samutsevich told CNN, "but I'm very upset that Nadezhda and Maria are still incarcerated."
Russian Orthodox Church to Pussy Riot punk band: Repent before appeal
The case sparked an international outcry, with Western governments and pop star Madonna condemning the sentences as disproportionate, a view not widely shared in Russia where public opinion was shocked by the protest.
Members of the all-girl punk band "Pussy Riot" (from left) Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass-walled cage in the Moscow court Wednesday.
The three band members said their performance was a political protest and that they have no animus toward Russian Orthodox faithful.
Before the ruling Wednesday, relatives and lawyers for the trio complained of political interference in the original trial and said that Putin's weekend comments on the case in an interview marking his 60th birthday had compromised the appeal.
Members of the band Pussy Riot, arrested in February after storming a Moscow cathedral, were sentenced to two years in jail Friday. Critics say the arrest was Putin's personal revenge, raising questions about justice in Russia. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.
Samutsevich told CNN the cathedral protest was intended as a criticism of the support given by the Russian Orthodox Church for Putin's re-election, and not as an expression of hatred aimed at believers.
"We believe that we live in a secular society and in this state, the principles of the secular society should be respected," she said. "The representatives of the church should not interfere with the politics of the country, and we wanted to highlight this problem through our action."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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The Band and the writer of the article miss an important and nuanced point. In Russia, the issue is not whether Pussy Riot disparaged the Orthodox Church, it is whether they spoke ill of Putin. That was their crime, since Putin considers HIMSELF a religion and a God.
They all appear to fit the name the go by! Number one, a church is no place to protest, whether in Russia or in the U.S. Some people, regardless of their nationality, have absolutely no respect for others or the institutions they cherish and respect. No one addresses the congregation of the cathedral or the total disrespect that they must have felt at having these three unknowns protesting in their church. Why the church? Obviously, it was intentional and meant to be a slur on the church also. I totally agree that Putin deserved to be satirized, but no in a church. They fully know the harsh laws of Russia and yet chose to protest in this manner. It sounds to me as if they were begging to be arrested and charged! Well, they got their wish! Just their very names tells anyone that they would not be invited to perform or protest in the church. They come across as brainless idiots with the smirks on their faces. Do they think those smirks would held their case or how they are treated once in prison. I doubt the solicited much support from the Russian people. Had they done their protest elsewhere, they might have been seen as less than hooligans
Do you even know what they were protesting?
Sorry for the typos!
She was freed because she has the most pronounceable name.
Russia will eventually make it to the twentieth century and recognize freedom of speech. It may just take another couple hundred years.
It's such a tough call, but Maria Alyokhina is looking pretty cute today... I still emplore the russians to turn these girls over to me for incarceration in my personal dungeon....
Why has Obama not came out and said something about this? Maybe even state it wasn't a terrorist attack but they were angry over the Brits drinking tea?
In all seriousness, if they did this at the Presidential inauguration (ours) would we not charge them with a crime? A real President might commute their sentences...but they might not..
Much like ancient Rome, if the masses aren't not entertained in some way with Ghetto Ball (stronger animals/people overtaking the weaker), Car Racing with restrictor plates (Chariot Racing with the horses ankle tendons tied so they cannot run full speed), Drinking of & Using Spirits to escape reality (Beer – Drugs), Entertainers (Court Jester & Pied Pipers such as Madonna, Pu$$y Riot Group, etc.), and more................ Would there then be a distaste for the manner of living and people rebelling......revolting..................... I can only ask the question, what do you think?
I think it takes all kinds and I wouldn't have it any other way.
WOW,IM glad they let that go, that must of kind of hurt?AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH.
thanks Iknow im sick. WAY to go Jets. BY.
I doubt Russia has a 3 strikes law. Second strike may be the last for these young ladi....um.... females.
The proof can be found for if the Western Cultures have turned into a Sodom and Gomorrah, they will welcome this person claiming to be a human being.
coming soon to a city where you live, if you keep obama in power- he's putin's best friend, obama's also Hugo's best friend, cast a no vote for obama and stop the opression from coming here to America