Pussy Riot members have written an open letter insisting that Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova are no longer members of the punk collective.
The letter also chided Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova's latest performance at Amnesty International's Wednesday night concert at Barclay's Center in Brooklyn.
The letter said the two women, who were recently released from a Russian penal colony, missed the "aspirations and ideals of our group."
"Unfortunately for us, they are being so carried away with the problems in Russian prisons, that they completely forgot about...feminism, separatist resistance, fight against authoritarianism and personality cult, all of which, as a matter of fact, was the cause for their unjust punishment."
Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were arrested after performing a "punk prayer" in a Moscow cathedral. They were released in December, after spending 16 months in a prison where they reportedly worked long hours with other incarcerated women, suffered verbal abuse from guards and were not fed regularly.
But according to the six members who signed Thursday's letter, who have asked to remain anonymous, Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova are no longer affiliated with the group.
"Yes, we lost two friends, two ideological fellow member, but the world has acquired two brave, interesting, controversial human rights defenders-fighters for the rights of the Russian prisoners. Unfortunately, we cannot congratulated them with this in person, because they refuse to have any contact with us."
Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova appeared at Amnesty International's concert Wednesday night, where they performed with Madonna.
"Our performances are always 'illegal,' staged only in unpredictable locations and public places not designed for traditional entertainment," the six, who signed the letter Garadja, Fara, Shaiba, Cat, Seraphima and Schumacher, wrote.
