Two imprisoned members of the group "Pussy Riot" begin hunger strike

Two imprisoned members of the protest group Pussy Riot in Russia have begun a hunger strike in a prison near Moscow, where they are currently serving sentences for online posts they made several years ago, Russian media reported.

Maria Alyokhina and Lyusya Shtein are demanding that they be placed in one cell and allowed to communicate with each other, the activists' lawyer is quoted as saying.

The Tver District Court in Moscow sentenced the two activists on December 17 — Alyokhina to 15 days in prison and Shtein to 14 days — after finding them guilty of propagating Nazi symbols online. The two women had been arrested the day before.

The accusation against Alyokhina stemmed from a photo she posted on a social network six years ago of Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka with a Nazi swastika on him, comparing him to "fascists."

Shtein, who is also a Moscow municipal lawmaker, was convicted for a cartoon showing her wearing a hat with a swastika on it, which was posted on a social network in 2018.

Alyokhina, Shtein and other members of the protest group have been sentenced to 15 days in prison several times in recent months for participating in illegal protest actions and rallies.

Alyokhina and two other members of Pussy Riot came to prominence after being convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for an act in which they entered Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior and sang a “punk prayer” against Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister and campaigning for his return to the presidency at the time.

Alyokhina and bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were nearing the end of their two-year sentences when they were released in December 2013 under an amnesty, which they dismissed as a propaganda ploy to improve Putin's image ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.