Two founding members of the female punk performance-art group Pussy Riot have officially announced their newly established center to defend prisoners' rights.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina told reporters on March 13 that the center will work from within a complex of penal colonies in Russia's Republic of Mordovia.
The center -- called Zona Prava (Zone of Law) -- also has a hotline number that offers legal advice to those who have suffered prison abuse or for their relatives.
The women were convicted of hooliganism for a performance critical of President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral in 2012.
They had almost served their two-year sentences in full when they were freed under a general amnesty in December.
Tolokonnikova spent most of her sentence in a penal colony in Mordovia.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina told reporters on March 13 that the center will work from within a complex of penal colonies in Russia's Republic of Mordovia.
The center -- called Zona Prava (Zone of Law) -- also has a hotline number that offers legal advice to those who have suffered prison abuse or for their relatives.
The women were convicted of hooliganism for a performance critical of President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral in 2012.
They had almost served their two-year sentences in full when they were freed under a general amnesty in December.
Tolokonnikova spent most of her sentence in a penal colony in Mordovia.