Two members of Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot detained after prison protest

Two members of Pussy Riot were detained on Monday following a protest outside a Siberian prison colony where Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov is being held.

Maria Alyokhina posted on Twitter that she and Olga Borisova, both of the feminist punk band, were arrested early on Monday morning after protesting outside the Yakutia prison for Sentsov to be released.

Alyokhina and Borisova hung a banner on a nearby bridge, reading: "Free Sentsov!"

MediaZona, a website focusing on law enforcement in Russia, set up by Pussy Riot members Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, published a video showing police stopping a car in which the two women were travelling and taking them to a police station.

Sentsov, who is from the Crimean city of Simferopol, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2015 for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts in Crimea, after the peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Russian officials accused Sentsov and anti-fascist activist Aleksandr Kolchenko of arson attacks on pro-Russian groups, charges which they both deny.

The charges against Sentsov were seen as an unfair and politically-motivated, described by Amnesty International as "redolent of Stalinist-era show trials".

Pussy Riot gained fame in 2012 for their protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Marina Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich were arrested in 2012 after performing a song called Punk Prayer, which attacked the Orthodox Church's support for Putin and the Kremlin.