Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that three female members of punk band Pussy Riot should be released. They were sentenced to two years in jail last month for a political protest in a Moscow cathedral.
Mr Medvedev, who was president for four years until May, appeared to be trying to disassociate himself from the jail terms which were condemned as excessive by the west and domestic rights groups, as well as by liberal Russians.
When president, Mr Medvedev styled himself as a liberal reformer.
The three band members – Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich – were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred on August 17th after belting out a profanity-laced song criticising President Putin on the altar of Moscow’s main cathedral in February. They have been in jail since March and their appeal is due to start being heard on October 1st.
“The prolongation of their incarceration in the conditions of jail seems to me to be unproductive,” said Mr Medvedev in televised remarks. “A suspended sentence, taking into account time they have already spent [in jail], would be entirely sufficient,” he added.