Waiting for a visit in a prison colony in Mordovia

In August 2012, priest and human rights activist Gleb Yakunin held a prayer service in support of the members of the band Pussy Riot outside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. He stated that he did not consider their act blasphemy but rather “holy foolishness,” and called for mercy and forgiveness. According to Yakunin, “flourishingevil” exists both within the Church and in the country, and the harsh sentence given to the group members contradicts Christian values. The service was peaceful and became a symbolic gesture of solidarity with the convicted women.

Actress Chulpan Khamatova spent a day with the children of Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, members of Pussy Riot who were serving sentences in a women’s penal colony. The meeting with the prisoners’ children was initiated by Maksim Gromov, a member of the unregistered human rights group "Union of Prisoners". “They’re wonderful children… If I had a son like this… It’s fascinating to imagine who they will become in 20 years,” Khamatova said.

At the first Pussy Riot trial, Yekaterina Samutsevich — like the other defendants — was represented by a well-known team of lawyers: Mark Feygin, Nikolai Polozov, and Violetta Volkova. Their defense strategy was built on the argument of political persecution, while rejecting the very premise that the women had committed “hooliganism”. However, during preparations for the appeal, Samutsevich unexpectedly dismissed the entire legal team, stating that they had failed to take into account the specific circumstances of her involvement in the action: she was removed from the cathedral by security before the main part of the performance began. Feygin himself later explained that “hooliganism” is considered a crime from the moment “she [Samutsevich] entered the cathedral,” and he claimed that Samutsevich had struck a police officer with a guitar and “resisted arrest,” being the only member of the group to do so. Samutsevich hired a new lawyer, Irina Khrunova, who built the appeal around this technical detail and convinced the court that her role was legally distinguishable from that of the other participants. In October 2012, the appeals court replaced Samutsevich’s prison sentence with a suspended one and released her directly from the courtroom, while Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina remained in penal colonies. Feygin argued that there were no legal grounds for her release (she had no children and no job) and suggested that Samutsevich had likely been “worked on” by a prison informant and agreed to admit guilt — something the other two refused to do. Afterward, rumors spread in the media and within the opposition community that Samutsevich had “cut a deal” with the authorities and “betrayed” the other members in order to gain her freedom. She denies this, insisting that her release was the result of a different legal strategy alone, and describing what happened as “the system’s sly maneuvering.”

The Zubovo-Polyansky District Court of Mordovia denied Tolokonnikova parole and denied her final statement.

A conversation with Natalia, the mother of Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, about feminism.

Maria Alyokhina on her way to visit Nadezhda Tolokonnikova after her release. Pussy Riot members ponder "what's worse — a penal colony or a pretrial detention center?"