Free Republic

It turns out that with the newfound fame as international human rights spokespersons, Maria Alyokhhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova have alienated their former musical group members, who now feel the pair have strayed from the movement's original goals. Six of the members of the Russian punk rock group known as Pussy Riot have decided to write a letter stating that they may no longer be listed as members of their group. In the letter, the collective accuses the two former members of no longer meeting up to the "aspirations and ideals of [the] group." The two newly disenfranchised members had performed...

AFP - Jailed Pussy Riot band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova is on her way to a new penal colony in Siberia, her husband said Tuesday, following fears after two weeks without information about her whereabouts. Tolokonnikova, 23, who alleged major prison abuses in her previous colony in central Russia, is on her way to a new prison colony deep in the Krasnoyarsk region, her husband Pyotr Verzilov wrote on Twitter, saying the information comes from a reliable source. The penal colony number 50 in the town of Nizhny Ingash lies about 300 kilometres (185 miles) from the regional centre Krasnoyarsk, four...

Mr Putin made the observation on Thursday in one of his trademark pithy remarks during his first interview since his inauguration in May, with the Kremlin-controlled, English-language RT television channel. “Some fans of group sex say that it’s better than one-on-one because, as with any collective work, you can skive off,” he said. The comment came after the Russian leader had spoken about an orgy that was staged in Moscow’s state biology museum in 2008 which involved Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, one of three feminist activists of the Pussy Riot group who were jailed for two years for hooliganism last month...