Maxim Shemetov / Reuters

Members of the female punk band Pussy Riot (from right) Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina sit in a glass-walled cage after a court hearing in Moscow, Aug. 17.

MOSCOW -- The Russian Orthodox Church on Sunday called for members of the Pussy Riot punk band to repent, on the eve of an appeal court hearing they hope will quash their two-year jail sentences for performing an anti-Kremlin song in Moscow's main cathedral.

The three women - who belted out a "punk prayer" criticizing President Vladimir Putin's close ties to the Russian Orthodox Church - were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" by a district court on Aug. 17.

The tough jail sentences they received saw the West sharply criticize Putin and the Kremlin because of doubts over the independence of the judiciary, and global celebrities, including British musician Paul McCartney and U.S. pop singer Madonna, called for leniency for the women.

Vladimir Legoida, a senior church spokesman, said their stunt "must not remain unpunished whatever the justification," but said that any repentance, if expressed, should be taken into account.

"The church sincerely wishes for the repentance of those who desecrated a holy place, certainly it would benefit their souls," Legoida said in a speech.

"If any words of the convicts indicate repentance ... we would wish that they are not left unnoticed and those who violated the law get a chance to mend their ways."

A church statement after the August verdict indicated that the clergy would back a pardon or a reduced sentence, but that would have required Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, to admit their guilt, something their lawyers say they will not do.

"If they (the church) mean repentance in the sense of a crime ... it definitely won't happen. Our clients won't admit guilt. A call for that is pointless," lawyer Mark Feigin told independent television channel Dozhd on Sunday.

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Earlier this month, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that keeping the women in prison any longer would be "unproductive" — a statement that encouraged hopes the appeals court could set them free. But skeptics pointed at the Kremlin's ongoing crackdown on dissent, saying that their release would be unlikely.

A recent official opinion poll showed that more than half of Russians are critical of what Pussy Riot did and consider their two-year jail sentence to be a just one, with less than a third saying the opposite.

The trio's legal team and relatives hold out little hope that the sentences - which they believe are excessively harsh - will be quashed or reduced at the hearing scheduled for Monday, whether they repent or not.

"The sentence is predetermined; their repentance will not affect it in any way," Stanislav Samutsevich, father of one of the jailed women, told Reuters.

"The fact the church is calling for that is nothing but a public relations move to sustain their reputation in the eyes of the public, as the church says it is separate from the state."

Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has called Putin's 12-year rule a "miracle of God" and backed his presidential election campaign earlier this year.

Kirill dismissed criticism of his backing for the Kremlin on Friday, telling students that close ties between the church and state helped protect and develop society.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Russia PM Medvedev: Pussy Riot members should be freed
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Updated at 11:29 a.m. ET: MOSCOW --  A judge sentenced three women who staged an anti-Kremlin protest on the altar of Moscow's main Russian Orthodox church to two years in jail each on Friday in a trial seen as test of President Vladimir Putin's tolerance of dissent.

The trio from punk band Pussy Riot, handcuffed in a courtroom cage, reacted with giggles and one rolled her eyes when the judge issued the sentences after reading the guilty verdict for almost three hours.

A man in the courtroom shouted "Shame!" and hundreds of protesters outside the Moscow courthouse repeated that chant and whistled when news of the sentence came.

"They are in jail because it is Putin's personal revenge," opposition leader Alexei Navalny said in the courtroom. "This verdict was written by Vladimir Putin."

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for performing a "punk prayer" in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. They called on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.

Their feminist punk collective has about 10 members who appear in public in ski masks for anonymous impromptu performances they describe as a form of protest art.

The defendants said they were protesting against close ties between Putin and the Russian Orthodox church and did not intend to offend believers, but the judge rejected those arguments.

The U.S. Embassy in Russia criticized the sentences.

"Today's sentence in the Pussy Riot case looks disproportionate to the actions," the U.S. Embassy in Russia wrote in Russian on Friday on its Twitter microblog.

Pussy Riot supporters protest at Russian cathedral as global campaign heats up

Prosecutors had requested three-year sentences. The two-year sentences include the nearly six months served since the defendants were jailed following the Feb. 21 protest.

Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP - Getty Images

Members of the punk band Pussy Riot -- Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, center, Maria Alyokhina, right, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, left -- are escorted Friday by policewomen inside a Moscow court building.

In a sign of the tension over the trial in a small Moscow courtroom, Judge Marina Syrova was assigned bodyguards on Thursday following what authorities said were threats.

Divisions
The trial divided Russia's Orthodox Christians, with many backing the authorities' demands for severe punishment, but others saying the women should be granted clemency.

The trial featured a parade of state witnesses who say they were traumatized by the church performance, which prosecutors called an abuse of God.

Russia's Pussy Riot: Unmasked and on trial

Ahead of the verdict, their lawyers said the outcome will be dictated by the Kremlin. Putin's supporters denied that and portrayed the women as blasphemers and self-publicists who should be punished for committing a premeditated outrage against the Church.

Members of Pussy Riot were found guilty Friday after staging this protest on Feb. 21, 2012, inside Christ The Savior Cathedral in Moscow.

"It was a conscious deed. They understood quite clearly where they were going and why," said Vladimir Burmatov, who represents Putin's United Russia party in parliament.

Pussy Riot was formed last year in anger at Putin's decision to return to the presidency in an election after four years as premier. The band's public performances were popular on the Internet, but it is the trial that has brought them global fame.

The charges against them raised concern abroad about freedom of speech in Russia two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Small, but raucous protests were held Friday in a few dozen cities in support of the three women. A few dozen people came out in Barcelona, Spain, a couple hundred in Paris, and a handful in Washington. Other rallies were held in Bulgaria, Ukraine and elsewhere.

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The opposition says Putin saw the trial initially as a chance to strengthen his relationship with the influential Russian Orthodox Church -- about 70 percent of Russians say they follow the faith -- but his plans backfired.

Although believers were united in outrage that the band thrashed out a "punk prayer" deriding Putin in a place they consider sacrosanct, many were upset by the Church hierarchy's lack of forgiveness and calls for "divine retribution."

From March 2012: Anti-Putin activists pay high price, but refuse to back down

Many Russians, including some of the Orthodox faithful, are concerned about ties between church and state under Patriarch Kirill, who has praised Putin's rule as a "miracle of God."

Aware that a long sentence could reinforce the picture Pussy Riot has painted of him as intolerant and repressive, Putin told reporters this month that although the women had done "nothing good," they should not be judged too harshly.

But the damage to Putin's image abroad has already been done, and divisions between his supporters and opponents have widened, risking polarizing society even more than when protests took off against his 12-year-rule during the winter.

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In moves seen by the opposition as a crackdown, parliament has recently rushed through laws increasing fines for protesters, tightening controls on the Internet -- which is used to arrange protests -- and imposing stricter rules on defamation.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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