The Wireless

Pussy Riot freed

08:35 am on 24 December 2013

A member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, who were released from jail under an amnesty, has called for foreign countries to boycott the Winter Olympics being held in Russia early next year.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova dismissed the amnesty law that set her free, saying releasing people just a few months before their term expires was a "cosmetic measure".

She labelled the Russian state a "totalitarian machine" and said prison reform was the starting point for reform of Russian society. Calling for a boycott of the Sochi Games in February, the 24-year-old said Western governments should not give in because of oil and gas deliveries from Russia.

Ms Tolokonnikova was released from a Siberian prison on Monday hours after bandmate Maria Alyokhina, 25, was freed from jail in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. Ms Alyokhina told Russian TV that the amnesty was "a profanation".

The band members were jailed in 2012 after singing a protest song in a Moscow cathedral, an act seen as blasphemous by many Russians, and condemned by the Orthodox Church.