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September 24, 2013

Pussy Riot Member Begins Hunger Strike over "Slavery-Like Conditions" in Penal Colony 
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A member of the Russian feminist punk group "Pussy
Riot"http://www.democracynow.org/topics/pussy_riot has launched a hunger
strike to protest harsh conditions in a Mordovian penal colony where she
is serving a two-year sentence for protesting Russian leader Vladimir
Putin inside a Moscow cathedral. In an open letter, Nadia Tolokonnikova
describes "slavery-like conditions," including beatings carried out with
the approval of prison officials and sewing work shifts that last 17
hours. Tolokonnikova's husband, Peter Verzilov, said she has also faced
death threats.

Peter Verzilov: "Before this situation unfolded in the last several
weeks, Nadia tried to change the situation internally, from inside the
prison. But obviously she understood that this was impossible and at the
end of her efforts, they just led to a murder threat from the prison
administration."

Tolokonnikova is one of two members of Pussy Riot now in penal colonies
for the group's "punk prayer" protest in 2011, when they danced and
exhorted the Virgin Mary to get Putin out. The second member, Maria
Alyokhina, staged an 11-day hunger strike earlier this year.

 

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