Russia: Pussy Riot members ‘could run for parliament’

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Two Pussy Riot members have said they might run for parliament.

Associated Press reports that Nadia Tolokonnikov, and fellow band member Maria Alekhina said yesterday at the Berlin film festival that a move into politics “is worth a try”, and that they may run for the Moscow City Assembly.

The election is most likely to be held in September, but the date has not yet been announced.

The two band members were jailed for ‘hooliganism’ in August 2012 after an anti-Putin protest in a Russian church, and were released under an amnesty law in December last year, which they dismissed as a PR stunt.

The pair shared a stage with Madonna at an Amnesty International concert last week, where she said “It’s time for the rest of the world to be as brave as Pussy Riot”.

After the concert, other members of the feminist collective released an open letter insisting the two were “no longer members of the group”, as they had turned their back on “radical actionism”, but Tolokonnikov retorted that “Pussy Riot can be anyone, and no one can excluded from Pussy Riot”.

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