The two jailed members of Pussy Riot are due to be released from prison. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina will be freed as part of an amnesty bill that will also see 25,000 Russian prisoners let go in anticipation of the 2014 Sochi Olympics. There’s no timeline yet for the duo’s release, but a lawyer for the two women says she expects it to be a swift release. Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were both given two-year sentences for staging a musical protest at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior and, in recent months, had become a cause célèbre for everyone from Madonna to Paul McCartney.
In a press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he’s not sorry that the members of Pussy Riot ended up behind bars, saying that he was “sorry that they were engaged in such disgraceful behavior,” which he maintains “was degrading to the dignity of women.”