Second member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot freed in amnesty

A member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina, walked free from jail on Monday under an amnesty allowing her early release from a two-year sentence for a protest in a church against President Vladimir Putin.
   
"They've just released her," Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of fellow band mate Nadia Tolokonnikova, who is also due to be released under the amnesty, told Reuters.

For her part, Maria Alyokhina dismissed the prison amnesty that led to her early release on Monday as a 'PR stunt' and said she would have refused to leave jail if that had been an option.    

"I do not think it is a humanitarian act," Alyokhina said of the amnesty, which was initiated by President Vladimir Putin, in comments to Russian internet and TV channel Dozhd. "I think it is a PR stunt."

Later, a second Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was freed from prison under an amnesty that allowed for her early release from a two-year sentence for a protest in a church against President Vladimir Putin.    

Tolokonnikova shouted "Russia without Putin" after she was freed from a prison in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.


 
REUTERS