Members of Pussy Riot have officially launched their new prisoner's rights group 'Zona Prava', which translates into English as 'Law Zone'.
Maria Alyokhina and Nadia Tolokonnikova, key members of feminist, anti-fascist punk protest group Pussy Riot, were both imprisoned in 2012 after performing a 'Punk Prayer' in a Moscow Cathedral. They were eventually released in December 2013, following considerable pressure from human rights groups such as Amnesty International, but both were highly critical of their treatment in prison.
Alyokhina described her sentence as a time of "endless humiliations", which included forced intimate searches, inhumane working conditions, and unofficial punishments such as being forbidden to wash.
Speaking to The Guardian, Tolokonnikova said, "Russia is built along the same lines as a prison camp at the moment, so it's important to change the prison camps so that we can start to change Russia." She added: "Everything is just starting, so fasten your seatbelts."
The group, which is run by former prison psychologist Vladimir Rubashny, has received support from The Cinema for Peace Initiative and Foundation, who have expressed hopes to bring the group's leaders to New York and LA next month.
Both Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova have been involved in a series of controversial incidents recently, including being detained in the Russian city of Sochi during the Winter Olympics, and attacked with whips by Cossack militia.