Jailed Pussy Riot Member Moved to Solitary Cell

Jailed Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina has been moved to a single-person cell, Reuters reports. Alyokhina requested the move after disagreements made things difficult between her and her fellow prisoners. “Some tensions arose in relationships and, apparently to prevent this situation from escalating, she decided to submit a request to the prison leadership and they moved her to a one-person cell,” a prison service spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman dismissed reports that the disagreements were religious in nature, and said she had no information regarding another report that Alyokhina was violently threatened by her cellmates. Alyokhina is accompanied by a prison guard whenever she leaves her cell, and her main meal is delivered directly to her cell.

Alyokhina and fellow Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova received two-year sentences for hooliganism in October in connection with a February punk-rock protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Tolokonnikova is housed in a separate prison. Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich was also convicted, but was freed on appeall.