Pussy Riot Members, Greenpeace Activists to Be Freed Under Russia's New Amnesty Bill

The Russian government passed an amnesty bill on Wednesday that might allow for the release of the members of punk band Pussy Riot, as well as the 30-member crew of a Greenpeace ship that was detained after a protest.

Two members from Pussy Riot, 24-year-old Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, 25, are slated to be released from jail, Russian President Valdimir Putin announced on Thursday, along with oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

"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 told the press during a media conference reported by NBC News.

Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina have spent the past nine months in a penal colony, after their band Pussy Riot performed a protest against the Russian Government at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The Feb. 17 "punk prayer" was a demonstration against President Valdimir Putin's campaign for another term in office.

The State Duma voted on Wednesday 446-0 in favor of the bill, which eases up on first-time offenders, those who haven't carried out violent crimes, minors and women with children, USA Today reported.

The Russian Supreme Court recently argued that Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina's status as single mothers was never mentioned.

"The court did not provide any proof that Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were motivated by hatred toward any social group in its verdict," the Supreme Court wrote on its website, adding that the courts didn't look at "extenuating circumstances," including the fact that Alyokhina had a 6-year-old son, and Tolokonnikova had a 5-year-old daughter.

30 Greenpeace members on board the Arctic Sunrise ship were taken into Russian government's custody on Sept. 19, after a protest against oil drilling in the arctic. Some of the activists reportedly tried to climb up the face of an oil-drilling platform in the Barents Sea, reportedly to hang a banner there. But Russian border troops soon seized the ship, accusing the group of piracy.

The bill will go into effect as soon as Thursday night, but gives authorities a six-month grace period to push it into action, leading some to believe that the two groups of prisoners won't be freed immediately.

The Kremlin's move is largely being regarded as an effort to ease tensions between Russia and the West, USA Today reported.

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