Medvedev: Tolokonnikov and Alekhin need to be released

Prime Minister Medvedev considers it wrong to stay participants in the Pussy Riot punk group in prison, but classifies this issue to the competence of the court, RIA Novosti reports. “This question still does not need to me, but our judicial structures and their defenders. They have the right to apply with relevant statements, I think they will use it, and the court has the right to consider this issue on the merits,” Medvedev said at a meeting with the winners of the international Olympiads.

He added that he had already expressed his position on this issue. "I said for a long time: these figures are very unpleasant - both externally and internally, just extremely negative emotions cause me. It is so negative that even talking about them is unpleasant. But I would not put them in jail, being a judge, I simply do not consider it right to serve as a deprivation of liberty, they already sit, these girls are already enough, in fact. The rest is in the competence of the court, protection and relevant judicial prosecutors, ”Medvedev said.

He also added that he never considered them a rock band. "I have some doubts that now not only in our country the team has anything to do with music, I have the feeling that there is no, they, in my opinion, did not sing that they would get into the Annals not even the story, but the Internet. But there was no music, the prime minister said.

On September 12, Medvedev stated that the prison conclusion of the Pussy Riot participants is “unprovable”. "The extension of the detention in a prison in relation to this occasion seems to me unproductive. Here, in my opinion, it would be enough conditional punishment, taking into account the time that they had been conducted in conditions of imprisonment," Medvedev said.

On September 6, President Putin said that the authorities had to pay attention to the Pussy Riot group. Thus, he commented on the action of the War art group in the Timiryazev Biological Museum, in which Nadezhda Tolokonnikov, who was convicted of Punk-Moleben in the Cathedral of Christ Savior, took part. “It seems to me that even then the authorities should have paid attention to this. After that, they set up a group of group sex in a public place. This, as they say, is the right to do everything that they want, if this does not violate the law, but in a public place, it seems to me that even then they should pay attention to the authorities. Then they still have been posted on the Internet. Some of the lovers say that group sex is better than individual things, because there are more and so here, because it is so individual. As in any collective work, you can pierce it.

Putin also recalled that a couple of years ago, one of the participants in the art group "War" hung three stuffed animals in the Moscow supermarket with the inscription about the need to free Moscow from Jews, homosexuals and migrant workers.

Pussy Riot in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior Putin called the Pussy Riot. “What they did in the temple: they first came to the Elokhov Church and arranged a shabash there, then moved to another temple and arranged another sabbath there,” the president said.

At the same time, Putin once again refused to comment on the verdict to Pussy Riot to the Pussy Riot, saying that the punishment should be adequately deed. “I think that these girls have lawyers, and they should be involved in their interests in court. They can challenge the verdict in a higher instance and achieve his review. But this is their case, this is a purely legal issue,” he said.

“You see, I just try not to touch this matter at all. I know what is happening there, but I don’t get there at all,” the president concluded.