Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina, members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot visited Rikers Island today, and spent several hours with 25-year-old protestor Cecily McMillan. McMillan was arrested for elbowing a cop who she said grabbed and bruised her breast during an Occupy Wall Street demonstration in 2012, was found guilty assaulting a police officer, and is awaiting sentencing later this month.
“She’s really a hero,” Alyokhina told Mashable. “We hope that the judge doesn’t make any more mistakes.”
Tolokonnikova’s astranged/reunited husband Peter Verzilov was also there, naturally, and told the press that McMillan told him that this was a “great life experience” and that she wants to write a book. He said, “She might be the happiest prisoner I’ve seen.”
Pussy Riot members were released before serving their two year prison sentence via a demonstrative presidential pardon. They were sentenced to two separate, brutal, gulag-like prison camps for several seconds of singing a Putin protest song inside a church. Since being released, they have devoted themselves to prison rights activism, but also had time to protest the Olympics and be savagely attacked by Cossacks in Sochi. Previously, Pussy Riot have made an appearance at an Amnesty International Concert. They will also be appearing at Frieze later this weekend. (Photo: Jeff Petriello/Mashable)
