Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has called for the three imprisoned members of punk band Pussy Riot to be freed. According to the Associated Press, Medvedev says keeping the trio in jail any longer would be “unproductive.” The release of Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevitch could come as early as Oct. 1 when the group’s case comes up for appeal.
The members of the guerilla art collective were sentenced to two years in jail in August, when they were convicted of “hooliganism driven by religious hatred” after performing a short, guerrilla piece about Vladimir Putin inside Moscow’s main cathedral. Since their arrest, the group has garnered support from everyone from Paul McCartney to Peaches. Some of those tributes will be compiled into a book, Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer For Freedom, due in about two weeks from Feminist Press. The book will also include the trio’s letters from prison, courtroom statements from the defense, poems, and a transcript of the "punk prayer" that got the group in so much trouble to begin with.