Two founding members of Pussy Riot respond to open letter claiming they've been removed from the group

As previously reported, Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova spoke at Amnesty International's Bringing Human Rights Home concert over the weekend before news of an anonymous open letter broke, stating the two women were no longer considered part of Pussy Riot.

Before leaving the United States to return to Russia, Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova addressed the letter and told the New York Times that it "doesn't follow the ideology of Pussy Riot."

The letter had stated that the two women "completely forgot about the aspirations and ideals of our group," which were listed as "feminism, separatist resistance, fight against authoritarianism and personality cult."

Tolokonnikova dismissed the idea of being left out of the group saying, "Pussy Riot can be anyone, and no one can [be] excluded from Pussy Riot. Pussy Riot can only grow."

She also told the Times that despite what the letter said, the two women are still in contact with the members of Pussy Riot with whom they performed at Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral in 2012, resulting in their arrest. She is unsure of who actually wrote the open letter, which was signed by six anonymous individuals, some of whom used the same pseudonyms that she and Alyokhina once did.

Now that the two members are focusing on prison reform, they are going by their real names rather than associating their cause with Pussy Riot. Regardless of their growing celebrity in the United States, they are still living their same lives back in Moscow. "We live the same way other people do in Russia — we take the metro, we walk around," Alyokhina told the Times. "In terms of our everyday life, it's no different than it was before. Although we do get recognized occasionally."

The article also mentioned Questlove's thoughts on the mysterious group, following a benefit in their honor thrown by the Voice Project, a nonprofit that promotes social change through music. "I didn't even want to meet them — I didn't want to ruin the mystique," he told them, worried the duo might be seduced by their new celebrity. "Hip-hop was once a rebel voice, to sort of be the news of the people. If hip-hop got corrupted, anybody can get corrupted."

For now the two are focused on visiting prisons wherever they go and providing a voice for the prisoners that were arrested after a peaceful anti-Putin demonstration in Moscow on May 6, 2012. Alyokhina told the Times that those prisoners have been treated much worse than they ever were and that they deserve attention "more than we do."

Do you think the women's newfound fame will distract them from their mission or will it help their cause? Let us know in the comments section below!

Tags

Pussy Riot