'Pussy Riot' Message Murder Suspect Tried To Mislead Police

The message appeared in the kitchen near where the mother's and daughter's bodies were found in their Kazan apartment.

Russian investigators say a suspect in the killing of two women in the city of Kazan tried to mislead police by writing a message at the crime scene about the Pussy Riot feminist punk band.

The bodies of the women -- a 38-year-old and her 76-year-old mother -- were found on August 30 in their apartment near a message reading "Free Pussy Riot!" that had been scrawled, presumably in blood, on the wall.

Investigators have named the suspect as Igor Danilevsky, a 38-year-old Kazan university lecturer, and said he wrote the Pussy Riot message in an attempt to make it look like a "ritual" killing.

Three members of Pussy Riot were convicted and sentenced to two years in jail earlier this month for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" over a February protest against President Vladimir Putin that they carried out in the main Russian Orthodox cathedral in Moscow.

Their sentencing has drawn international condemnation.

Based on reporting by Interfax and ITAR-TASS