Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhada Tolokonnikova, jailed band members of ultra feminist punk group Pussy Riot, have been released from prison after securing an amnesty order from Kremlin.
Maria and Nadezhda were sentenced to a prison term until March on charges of hooliganism.
With their homemade balaclavas and neon dresses, the all-girl punk band were known for staging impromptu performances of protest songs in public places, such as a subway station and even Moscow's Red Square, from October 2011 to February 2012.
The band, however, climbed the peak of notoriety when its masked members on 21 February 2012 entered into the altar of Moscow's biggest church Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and performed a "Punk Prayer" with the title "Virgin Mary, Redeem Us of Putin".
The final act brought them into quick attention of the Putin regime that finally decided to crack the whip on them. However, their arrest and subsequent sentencing further made them into global celebrities, who stood against the repression of the Putin administration.
Maria was released from prison on Monday, while Nadezhda was released from the hospital where she was serving her prison sentence. A third band member Yekaterina Samutsevich was released back in October.
Earlier in the week Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced the jailed members of Pussy Riot would be released as part of an amnesty program in the lead-up to the 2014 Winter Olympics. The "Arctic 30," a group of crew and protesters on a Greenpeace ship, who were jailed after ignoring orders to stay out of a Russian shipping route, are also expected to be released under same amnesty program.
