FUSE TV - Pussy Riot Members Finally Released From Russian Prison

UPDATE: The two still-imprisoned members of Pussy Riot are finally free! They were released from separate jails over the weekend, just a few months ahead of their scheduled March 2014 release. 

While a recently-passed amnesty bill is to thank for their freedom, one member of the feminist punk band agrees with skeptics that this move has less to do with Russia softening its laws and more to do with putting on a good face to the world before the 2014 Sochi Olympics. "Formally it’s a general amnesty," Maria Aloykhina told Rolling Stone. "But there isn't really an amnesty. The numbers that will be released are very small."

Original story: With the impending Winter Olympics in Russia putting pressure on the increasingly intolerant nation, the Russian parliament signed an amnesty bill that will likely free the two still-jailed members of Pussy Riot.

The bill—which passed with no opposition, 446-0—helps first-time offenders and women with small children to get early release from prison. That means Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhinia and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova—both of whom are mothers and still behind bars—are expected to be freed before 2014.

One sourpuss is not celebrating this news. Even now, Russian President Vladimir Putin is refusing to soften his hard-edged attitude toward the feminist punk collective. "I feel sorry for Pussy Riot not for the fact that they were jailed, but for disgraceful behavior that has degraded the image of women," Putin said. 

So yeah, even though everyone from Madonna to Paul McCartney has spoken out in their favor, noted women's rights advocate Putin disagrees. 

ICYMI: Indie singer-songwriter John Grant recently told Fuse the U.S. should boycott the Russian Olympics over the country's discriminatory treatment toward the LGBTQ community. Like Pussy Riot, he's not much of a Putin fan either, calling the president a "foul creature."