Two members of the Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot, who were recently released from prison, will appear at an Amnesty International concert in New York tonight. Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova made their first public appearance in the United States on Tuesday, arriving to take part in Amnesty International's "Bringing Human Rights Home" concert in Brooklyn. Madonna will introduce them on stage.
The women were released in December after nearly two years in prison following a conviction for hooliganism when they staged a protest in a Russian church, wearing balaclavas and screaming lyrics.
They have been critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and political conditions in their homeland, and blasted their release as an attempt to quiet criticism of human rights issues in Russia before the games in Sochi, which open Friday.
The concert is the first Amnesty International has held since its "Human Rights Concerts" from 1986 to 1998, whose performers included Bruce Springsteen, Sting and Peter Gabriel, among others. Other acts scheduled to take part in Wednesday's concert are Imagine Dragons, The Flaming Lips, Lauryn Hill, The Fray, Tegan and Sara and Colbie Caillat.
January 20, 2012: Members of the Russian radical feminist group Pussy Riot perform at Red Square in MoscowReutersFebruary 21, 2012: Pussy Riot stage an anti-Kremlin protest on the altar of Christ The Saviour Cathedral in MoscowReutersJuly 2, 2012: Pussy Riot perform during a concert by US rock group Faith No More in MoscowReutersJuly 4, 2012: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of Pussy Riot, reacts behind bars during a court hearing in Moscow. Three members of the all-woman punk band were detained on February 21, 2012, after they stormed into Moscow's main cathedral to sing a protest song against Vladimir Putin and criticised the Russian Orthodox Church's support for PutinReutersJuly 30, 2012: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina look out from the defendants' cell in a courtroom in MoscowReutersAugust 14, 2012: Protesters wearing masks take part in an Amnesty International flash mob demonstration in support of Russian punk band Pussy Riot on the Royal Mile in EdinburghReutersAugust 17, 2012: Pussy Riot members (R-L) Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich sit in a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Moscow. A Russian judge found the three women guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for staging an anti-Kremlin protest on the altar of Moscow's main cathedralReutersAugust 17, 2012: A policeman chases a Pussy Riot supporter on a fence enclosing the Turkish embassy near a court building in Moscow. Three women from Russian punk band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in jail on for their protest against President Vladimir Putin in a church, an outcome supporters described as the Kremlin leader's "personal revenge"ReutersAugust 17, 2012: A masked man attends a rally, in support of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, in Sydney, AustraliaReutersAugust 17, 2012: New York Police Department officers arrest a woman demonstrating in solidarity with the Russian punk band Pussy Riot in front of the Russian Consulate in New YorkReutersOctober 10, 2012: Yekaterina Samutsevich, a member of Pussy Riot, walks out after she was freed from the courtroom in Moscow . Samutsevich was freed on appeal, but a Moscow court upheld prison sentences for the two others imposed over a raucous cathedral protest against Vladimir Putin, who said they had got the jail terms they deservedReutersFebruary 11, 2013: A float featuring a Pussy Riot member dancing between Russian President Vladimir Putin and a priest is seen during the Rose Monday carnival parade in Dusseldorf, GermanyGettyDecember 23, 2013: Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova gestures as she walks out of prison in KrasnoyarskReutersDecember 23, 2013: Maria Alyokhina, member of Pussy Riot, watches a firework display after her release from a penal colony in Nizhny NovgorodReutersFebruary 4, 2014: Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina hold a news conference in New York. Pussy Riot will perform at Amnesty International's Bringing Human Rights Home concert on Wednesday in BrooklynReuters
