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Jailed Pussy Riot member moved to Siberian prison colony

By | Published on Thursday 7 November 2013

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova

Jailed Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been moved to a prison colony in deepest Siberia, according to her husband.

As previously reported, it was revealed that Tolokonnikova was being moved to a new jail last week when husband Pyotr Verzilov told reporters he had not been aware of his wife’s whereabouts since 21 Oct. Under Russian law when the authorities move a prisoner they are only obliged to let his or her family members know about the new location within ten days of them arriving there, and because of the size of Russia it can take many days for the move from one facility to another to be completed.

Verzilov and Tolokonnikova’s father have both claimed that the prison move is a result of the Pussy Riot member’s open letter criticising conditions in the jail where she was originally residing, her two hunger strikes to protest said conditions, and other protests held outside her original prison by supporters. Prison authorities decided to punish Tolokonnikova and limit the bad press her incarnation was causing by cutting her off from her supporters and the wider world, her family reckon.

According to The Guardian, having not known of his wife’s location for nearly two weeks, Verzilov says he has now received “100% reliable” information that she has been moved to a prison in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, four time zones and 2000 miles from Moscow. The exact prison is not yet known, but could be Prison No 50 in Nizhny Ingash, 200 miles from the city of Krasnoyarsk itself.

Verzilov told reporters: “They do not have the ability to put on the usual psychological or physical pressure they can use with inmates because of the high profile of the case. So they have chosen this as the punishment instead”.

Family members had expressed concerns that Tolokonnikova, still weak from her most recent hunger strike, would not be fit enough for the move, though a spokesman for Russia’s human rights ombudsman told reporters that prison officials had insisted she was in a “satisfactory” state of health, whatever that means.

As much previously reported, Tolokonnikova and another member of the Pussy Riot collective, Maria Alyokhina, were both jailed last year for their role in a protest performance in a Moscow church against the Putin regime in Russia.

In related news, earlier this week fans at a Manchester City football match had their “Free Pussy Riot” banner removed by officials. Man City were playing CSKA Moscow in a Champions League game.

A spokesman for European footballing body UEFA, which runs the Champions League, confirmed to the BBC that stewards had removed the Pussy Riot supporting sign because “banners of political message or meaning” are not allowed at its games. And too right, I mean, imagine if football fans started having political opinions or objecting to sinister institutions showing a fundamental disregard for free speech. They’d have to boycott all UEFA events for starters.



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