After more than a year of imprisonment, the two remaining jailed members of Russian punk group Pussy Riot have been released. But in an interview on Monday, the newly freed Maria Alyokhina insisted she'd rather be back inside, calling her release a "PR exercise" intended to make Russia look good and stave off potential boycotts before the Olympics begin in Sochi, Russia, in February. "If I had a choice to refuse, I would have, without a doubt," said Alyokhina.
It's a characteristically defiant statement from Alyokhina, who has remained steadfast in her criticism of Vladimir Putin and the Russian government since her incarceration in August 2012. The early release of Alyokhina and her fellow Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova — which comes several months before their sentences were slated to end — was part of an amnesty passed by Russia's parliament that freed roughly 20,000 prisoners. That number includes incarcerated mothers, which let both Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova walk free.
Shortly after her release, Tolokonnikova addressed a group of waiting journalists about her plans for future activism. "I'll do everything for those people who want help and support, and who need to receive it from me. I'll do everything I can to help prisoners now that I have ties to the jail system." In her own post-release interview, Maria Alyokhina expressed her desire to remain politically active. "The situation in the Nizhny Novgorod Prison, I hope, will remain under my control. Women who spoke out against labor law violations should be listened to, and their rights should not be violated anymore."
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Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were originally imprisoned for participating in a performance dubbed "A Punk Prayer." The two women, along with five of their fellow band members, donned balaclavas and delivered a brief performance at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The performance, which was intended as an attack on both Putin and his ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, urged the Virgin Mary to "become a feminist." Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were later convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" and sentenced to prison until March 2014. Watch the performance that landed them in jail:
