Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP - Getty Images, file

Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass-walled cage in a Moscow court last October.

MOSCOW — One of two jailed members of the Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot said she received death threats and complained of abuse at a prison colony where she is serving a two-year sentence for a protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main cathedral.

But Maria Alyokhina and fellow group member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said they did not regret the protest, despite describing harsh prison conditions in interviews published on Wednesday by the opposition-leaning Novaya Gazeta newspaper.

Alyokhina, 24, who lost an appeal this month to have her sentence deferred to care for her 5-year-old son, said she was transferred to solitary confinement in November after being threatened by inmates she suspects of acting on the orders of prison officials.

"(They said) if you stay in this unit — that's the end of you. ... Human rights are grossly violated here," said Alyokhina, who is being held at a penal colony in the Ural Mountains region of Perm.

"What is the most difficult thing? Coming to understand how this system works, how it creates a slave mentality," she said. "Ignorance, cowardice, betrayal, denunciation is the norm."

Tolokonnikova, 23, who also has a young child and is jailed in the central Russian region of Mordovia, renowned for its legacy of Soviet-era prison camps, said she has not been a victim of the same pressure as Alyokhina but described pitiless conditions of forced labor.

Like many female inmates in Russia, she works to fulfill quotas for sewing padded winter jackets, earning a salary of less than $12 per month, she said.

Both women, who were inspired by leftist philosophy to form the radical punk performance art group, complained of not having enough access to books in jail.

Three Pussy Riot members — who until their arrest hid their identities and that of other bandmates behind trademark colored balaclavas at impromptu street performances -- were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.

One of the three was released on appeal with a suspended sentence but Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova are less than halfway through their prison terms, which are counted from their arrests in March 2012.

Pussy Riot's raucous "punk prayer", the women flashing legs clad in brightly colored tights and brandishing an electric guitar on the altar, was criticized by Putin and cast by the Russian Orthodox Church as part of a concerted attack on the country's main faith.

The two jailed women complained that their message, part of a wave of opposition protests against Putin's decision to return for a third Kremlin term since 2000, has been twisted by Russian media.

"Russian state propaganda presented us as blasphemers, as hooligans and so on, but in reality it was an ironic and funny action, though still a desperate one," Tolokonnikova said.

"It was, so to speak, a political heartfelt cry which was still made in an ironic and funny manner."

Related:

Russian court bans 'extremist' Pussy Riot video from websites

Lawyer: Band members sent to far-flung prisons

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Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP - Getty Images

Members of the all-girl punk band Pussy Riot: Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass-walled cage in a court in Moscow, on Oct. 10, 2012.

Two members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot convicted of protesting against President Vladimir Putin in a cathedral have been sent to prisons far from Moscow despite requesting to serve out their terms in the capital, a lawyer said on Monday.

Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" in August and sentenced to two years in jail, a punishment that many in the West said was too harsh.
Their stunt — bursting into Moscow's main Russian Orthodox Cathedral to urge the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin — infuriated the church and many Russians. But Kremlin critics said their trial was part of a crackdown on dissent orchestrated by Putin, who began a six-year presidential term in May.

The two women lost their appeals on Oct. 10.

The women's lawyers said they had tried to argue they should be allowed to remain in jail in Moscow, saying it would have permitted them to be closer to their small children. They had also cited health and safety concerns at far-flung penal colonies.

"They have been sent away," one of their lawyers, Mark Feigin, told Reuters, saying he did not know where the women had been taken. By law, relatives must be informed once a convict arrives at a prison, but the trip can take days.

'We are not finished,' says freed Pussy Riot member

There is a women's prison about 60 miles from Moscow, but most are much farther away.

Former collaborators in a street-art group said on Twitter that Tolokonnikova had been sent to Mordovia, about 300 miles east of Moscow, and Alyokhina to the Perm region, near the Ural Mountains, about 700 miles east of the capital. That was not confirmed.

The duo had been held in a Moscow detention center since their arrests in March. Western governments and musicians such as Madonna had said their sentences were disproportionate, but Putin voiced support for the terms, saying the state must protect the feelings of the faithful.

Russian court sentences Pussy Riot rockers to 2 years in prison

The dominant Russian Orthodox Church has cast the punk group's protest as part of a concerted attack against the church and Russian traditions.

Russian Orthodox Church to Pussy Riot punk band: Repent before appeal

A third convicted member of Pussy Riot, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on appeal when a court suspended her sentence after her lawyer argued that she had been pulled away from the cathedral's altar before the protest song began.

According to The Moscow Times, Samutsevich has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights, accusing Russia of violating her right to freedom of speech and detaining her illegally.

"The violations were very serious and very evident," Samutsevich said in an interview Friday, according to The Moscow Times. "I don’t like the fact that they did not acquit me and the other girls … and I want to challenge that before the European court. Sadly, the Russian courts have not shown objectivity or fairness." Samutsevich described the conditions of her detention, saying she was deprived of food and sleep for hours, The Moscow Times reported.

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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.

Previous stories:

Russia PM Medvedev: Pussy Riot members should be freed
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi calls for release of Russian punk band Pussy Riot

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Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called for the release of the members of the Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot.

At an event organized by Amnesty International on Thursday, Suu Kyi accepted a bouquet from family members of one of the group's three members, Nadia Tolokonnikova.

The punk band members were sentenced in August to two years in prison for performing an irreverent song mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin inside Moscow's main cathedral.

Suu Kyi's journey to global icon: a heart-breaking tale of personal sacrifice

Responding to a question, Suu Kyi said: "I don't see why people should not sing whatever they want to sing."

She added jokingly that was unless they sing terribly. 

Her comments came during a town hall moderated by MSNBC's Alex Wagner.

Suu Kyi was one of the world's most famous political prisoners until her release two years ago. 

She is now on a coast-to-coast tour of the United States. On Wednesday, she met President Barack Obama at the White House and received the Congressional Gold Medal for her long fight for democracy in a country ruled by army generals since 1962.

Suu Kyi honored with Congress' highest award 

U.S. lawmakers and officials who turned out to honor Suu Kyi expressed amazement — some tearing up — that she had made the journey from house arrest to Washington.

Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for championing democracy in opposition to the military junta that held her under house arrest for years. Her last stay in the United States was in the 1970s as a United Nations employee.

Russia PM Medvedev: Pussy Riot members should be freed

Suu Kyi's election to parliament in April helped to transform the pariah image of Myanmar and persuade the West to begin rolling back sanctions after a year of dramatic reforms, including the release of about 700 political prisoners.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday he thought that three female members of punk band Pussy Riot who were sentenced to two years in jail for a political protest in a Moscow cathedral should be freed.

Medvedev, who was president for four years until May, appeared to be trying to disassociate himself from the jail terms that were condemned as excessive by the West and rights groups at home, as well as by liberal Russians.

As president, Medvedev styled himself as a liberal reformer, and though he handed the presidency back to Vladimir Putin he has made it clear he wants to remain in politics and perhaps even return to the presidency one day.

The three band members -- Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich -- were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred on Aug. 17 after belting out a profanity-laced song criticizing Putin on the altar of Moscow's main cathedral in February.

Russian court sentences Pussy Riot rockers to 2 years in prison

They have been in jail since March and their appeal proceedings are due to begin on Oct. 1.

Dmitry Astakhov / AP

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

"The prolongation of their incarceration in the conditions of jail seems to me to be unproductive," Medvedev said in televised remarks. "A suspended sentence, taking into account time they have already spent (in jail), would be entirely sufficient."

However, Medvedev also criticized the women, saying he was "sickened by what they did, by their looks, by the hysteria which followed what had happened."

He said prison is "very, very strict" punishment as a rule.

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

Medvedev emphasized he was expressing his personal view only and was not seeking to influence the case.

According to the BBC, it is unclear whether his comments could bring about a softening of the women's sentences. Medvedev's influence in Russia is limited, the report added.

Police: Russian killer wrote Pussy Riot message to mislead us

The band members had faced up to seven years in prison, but Putin said during the trial that they should not be judged "too harshly" and prosecutors subsequently requested three-year sentences; they were sentenced to two years each in the end.

In a television interview last week, Putin declined to comment on whether he believed the sentences were fitting, saying he was not interfering in the case.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Nikolay Alexandrov / AP

Igor Danilevsky, who allegedly confessed to killing two women, speaks to his mother in a court as he appears in the court in Kazan, about 450 miles east of Moscow on Friday.

A college teacher who confessed to killing two women in their Russian apartment says he scrawled "Free Pussy Riot" in blood on the wall to mislead investigators, police said Friday.

The initial hint that the killer was inspired by the jailed Pussy Riot punk band provoked new criticism by a Russian Orthodox Church official who said the group's supporters now had "blood on their conscience."

The official also called on human rights groups and celebrities such as Madonna and Paul McCartney to "disavow" their support of Pussy Riot to prevent other such violent acts, The Moscow Times reported.

But the police report said the crime was not inspired by the group or its protest against President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral for which three band members were jailed.

The 38-year-old suspect, identified as Igor Danilevsky, told police he killed a former classmate and her 76-year-old mother and then wrote the words on the wall "to draw suspicion away from himself and portray it as a ritual killing," the regional Interior Ministry said.

The bodies were found on Wednesday and state television repeatedly showed images of the slogan daubed on the kitchen wall of the apartment in Kazan, capital of the Tatarstan region, about 450 miles east of Moscow. According to The Moscow Times, investigators believe the killings of the women took place sometime between Aug. 24 and 26.

The "punk prayer" Pussy Riot performed at the Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February was a protest against Putin and the support for him from the Russian Orthodox Church.

Russian punk band Pussy Riot appeals conviction

The jailing of three band members for two years drew international criticism and opposition leaders hope Pussy Riot supporters will join street protests starting in September.

The Moscow Times reported that Mikhail Kuznetsov, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the trial, said "tragedies like the one in Kazan … would have been avoided" if the women had not been convicted of inciting religious hatred. 

Police said Danilevsky, the suspect in the killings in Kazan, had pretended to be courting the younger victim after she helped him pay off his debts by borrowing hundreds of thousands of roubles (tens of thousands of dollars) from banks.

Danilevsky allegedly promised the woman they would take a vacation together, but grabbed a knife and killed her during a quarrel after he told her they would be unable to take the trip.

Handout / Reuters

The words "Free Pussy Riot" written on a wall are seen inside an apartment in Kazan, Russia, in this undated image released to Reuters on Thursday. Two women were found stabbed to death in the apartment.

Russian court sentences Pussy Riot rockers to 2 years in prison

State television showed what it said was the suspect, his face blurred out, calmly giving an account of the killings.

Police said Danilevsky had taken the knife used in the killings with him after the murders and stole 100,000 roubles ($3,100) and two mobile phones from the apartment.

He was detained after the phones and the knife were found on the balcony of the apartment where he lived with his parents. A court ordered him held in custody for two months, and he could be imprisoned for life if convicted of the killings.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Church officials at a German cathedral have filed charges against three masked activists who disrupted a Sunday mass in support of the Russian rock group Pussy Riot, the officials confirmed to NBC News.

Two days after the Pussy Riot verdict in Moscow, the copycats stormed into the mass at Cologne cathedral and shouted “Free Pussy Riot,” while throwing leaflets into the crowd.

After less than a minute, the activists were escorted out by church wardens.

Prosecutors told NBC News that under German law, the two men and one woman could be prosecuted for the disruption of free practice of religion.

Russian court sentences Pussy Riot rockers to 2 years in prison

If convicted, they could face up to three years in prison – compared to the two-year sentence given to their heroines in Russia.

Russian clerics forgive Pussy Riot, ask for mercy

In an interview with Cathedral Radio, the dean of the Cologne Cathedral, Monsignore Robert Kleine, said: "It is legitimate and certainly appropriate to protest the verdict ... in public [in Germany], for example in squares. But there are borders, especially when the rights of others are impaired."

"The right to demonstration cannot be set above the right to religious freedom and above the religious feelings of the congregation," Kleine added.

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