Four days after their release from a Russian prison, two members of the punk band Pussy Riot gave their first news conference to emphasize that they were starting a human rights organization, while sticking by the message that put them in jail: ending the presidency of Vladimir V. Putin.
The activists, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and another woman were arrested last year after they performed a crude anti-Putin song on the altar of a Moscow cathedral. Ms. Alyokhina and Ms. Tolokonnikova were later sentenced to two years in a penal colony. The third woman, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on appeal, with a two-year suspended sentence.
On Monday, Ms. Alyokhina and Ms. Tolokonnikova were freed from prison colonies under a new amnesty law, which they dismissed as a publicity stunt. According to Reuters, Ms. Tolokonnikova said “their release was aimed solely at improving Russia’s image before it hosts the Winter Olympic Games.â€
The news agency added that Ms. Tolokonnikova called the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi “Putin’s pet project†and said that “anybody attending them would be supporting him.â€
Excerpts of the news conference on Friday were provided by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as part of a news roundup. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was among several news organizations that reported that the women said they supported the idea of Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, who was released from prison this week under a presidential pardon, becoming Russia’s president.
The women said they would shift their focus to human rights work, such as improving prison conditions, and The Associated Press quoted Ms. Tolokonnikova as saying, in part:
As for Vladimir Putin, we still feel the same about him. We still want to do what we said in our last performance for which we spent two years in prison: drive him away.
Follow Christine Hauser on Twitter @christineNYT.
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