Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says the two jailed members of the feminist punk performance collective Pussy Riot should be released.
Medvedev said on November 2 he disagreed with the group's actions, but that members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova "have already been in jail long enough."
The women were transferred last week to penal colonies in Mordovia and Perm to begin serving two-year sentences.
They were convicted of hooliganism for staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin inside Moscow's largest Orthodox cathedral.
Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova had already served more than seven months in pretrial detention together with fellow member Yekaterina Samutsevich.
Her sentence was later suspended.
The case has drawn international condemnation, with many observers calling the prison terms an attempt by Putin to silence his critics.
Medvedev said on November 2 he disagreed with the group's actions, but that members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova "have already been in jail long enough."
The women were transferred last week to penal colonies in Mordovia and Perm to begin serving two-year sentences.
They were convicted of hooliganism for staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin inside Moscow's largest Orthodox cathedral.
Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova had already served more than seven months in pretrial detention together with fellow member Yekaterina Samutsevich.
Her sentence was later suspended.
The case has drawn international condemnation, with many observers calling the prison terms an attempt by Putin to silence his critics.
