London, Dec 27 (IANS) Two members of the all-female Russian Punk band Pussy Riot, who were released from jail this week, Friday announced they planned to set up a rights organisation for helping prisoners in their country.
Addressing a news conference in Moscow, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said they will continue with their activism, The Telegraph reported.
“People absolutely have no idea what is going on in prisons. And the worst thing is that the majority of people are not even interested in it,” Alekhina told journalists at the news conference at independent Russian TV Optimistic Channel, also known as “Dozhd”.
Serving two years in prison for hooliganism for an irreverent anti-Kremlin protest at Moscow’s main cathedral in 2012, the two were freed as part of an amnesty.
“Nowadays, it is more convenient to exclude a person with a conviction, one who was in prison. And that person has difficulties finding a job. People move the prison topic away from their lives.”
“If we want a decrease in the crime rate, if we want thousands of people to be released, not with thoughts about repeated offences, but with constructive ones, then we must work on it, and this is our job. The authorities will not do it,” Alekhina added.