Maria Alyokhina, a member of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot jailed for performing an anti-Putin “punk prayer” in Moscow’s main cathedral this year, has been transferred to a solitary cell at Berezniki penal colony, apparently at her own request.

“Some tensions arose in relationships and, apparently, to prevent this situation from escalating, she decided to submit a request to the prison leadership and they moved her to a one-person cell,” a spokeswoman for the prison said. Alyokhina is discussing the matter with her lawyers.

The 24-year-old and fellow performer Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, began serving two-year sentences for their protest in August. The punishment was widely criticized. A third jailed protester, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was recently freed with a suspended jail sentence.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

BBC:

Prison officials said she had been moved because she was unable to get along with other prisoners at the Berezniki penal colony, some 715 miles (1,150km) north-east of Moscow.

There were conflicting reports about which part of the prison Alyokhina has been moved into, with some reports suggesting she had been moved to a cell in the prison’s punishment block, where conditions are usually harsher than in the rest of the prison.

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#incarceration#maria alyokhina#moscow#nadezhda tolokonnikova#political prisoner#protest#punk#pussy riot#russian orthodox church#vladimir putin#yekaterina samutsevich