Pussy Riot Band Members Sent to Remote Prison Camps

[Juana Go?]

Oh hey.

Two members of the anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot have been sent to remote prison camps to serve their sentences, the group has said.

Maria Alyokhina, 24, will serve the rest of her two-year term at a women's prison camp in Perm, a Siberian region notorious for hosting some of the Soviet Union's harshest camps. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, has been sent to Mordovia, a region that also hosts a high number of prisons.

"These are the harshest camps of all the possible choices," the band said via its Twitter account on Monday.

Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for performing an anti-Putin "punk anthem" in a Moscow cathedral in February. They argued that their conviction was part of a growing crackdown on free speech and political activism in Russia.

They are expected to serve the rest of their sentences, which end in March 2014, in the camps, where conditions are reportedly dire.

A third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released earlier this month after being given a suspended sentence. Pussy Riot's supporters have argued that her release was designed to give the appearance of mercy from the authorities.

Confusion reigned on Monday as relatives and lawyers tried to assess exactly where the women were sent. Both Perm and Mordovia host several prison camps, some of which comprised the Soviet-era gulag system. Prison authorities declined to comment on the women's whereabouts.

Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova had petitioned to serve their sentences in Moscow, arguing that they wanted to be close to their children. Alyokhina has a five-year-old son named Filipp, while Tolokonnikova has a four-year-old daughter named Gera.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Good thing we don't do shit like that, right?   

[Juana Go?]

I always sort of side eye countries that have labor camps...and then I remember we're no better. And then I continue to side-eye countries that have prison labor.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I always sort of side eye countries that have labor camps...and then I remember we're no better. And then I continue to side-eye countries that have prison labor.

Our entire economy rests on a combination of domestic prisoners and foreign slaves.

We just have a more brightly-painted jail cell than Russians have, is all.

[Juana Go?]

Pretty much.

[El Twid]

Yeah i imagine that the only bright thing in a siberian prison camp is hypothetical sun glare off the snow.

[Cain]

I wouldn't exactly call Perm or Mordovia "remote".  Both are well within "European Russia", and Perm's a million large city and administrative capital.  I strongly suspect that was put in to evoke the Gulag system and internal exile in Siberia...despite the fact Perm was part of the Gulag system when it was a major industrial centre, much more populated than it is now.  Hooray for historical inaccuracy being used to fuel modern day inaccuracy.*

The rest of the article is pretty accurate.  Life in the prison camps is rough, Soviet-style and while physical torture has never been reported, solitary confinement for minor infractions, minimal food, communal housing, lack of heating and sleep deprivation are the order of the day.


*To be honest, it would take a miracle for a Guardian article to not contain an inaccuracy about Russia.  They do employ Luke Harding and Miriam Elder, after all.