Pussy Riot Member Put in Solitary Confinement

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: November 23, 2012 (Issue # 1736)

Vladimir Filonov / SPT Alyokhina being led into a court hearing in August.

MOSCOW — Jailed Pussy Riot band member Maria Alyokhina has been placed in solitary confinement for her own protection, prison authorities said Friday.

Alyokhina, who is serving a two-year prison sentence at a prison colony in the Perm region, was moved to a safe room at her own request.

"The girl wrote to the leadership of the colony requesting measures to ensure her safety. She demonstrated that those around her have a bad attitude toward her. Therefore it was decided to transfer her to a room where she can be alone indefinitely," a prison representative told Interfax on Friday.

Alyokhina and fellow band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for a provocative performance in Moscow's largest cathedral in August. A third band member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on appeal in October.

One of the band members' former lawyers, Mark Feigin, has said he thinks the women's lives could be endangered in the notoriously harsh conditions of a Russian prison colony.

An Internet campaign to bombard the Ministry of Justice with complaints about Pussy Riot's sentence was blocked Thursday night after more than 500 faxes addressed to President Vladimir Putin had been sent.

The campaign at faxyouputin.com appeared online on Wednesday. It allowed web users to use an automated service to fax the Ministry of Justice an A4 picture of a balaclava with the words "Dear Mr. Putin, free speech is a human right. Please reconsider Pussy Riot's punishment."

A message posted on the website and the group's Twitter feed late Thursday said the fax service it was using pulled the plug after having sent 595 faxes from 46 countries.