MOSCOW, November 23 (RIA Novosti) – One of the two jailed members of the Pussy Riot group, Maria Alyokhina, will be placed in solitary confinement for the next three months at her own request, a regional prisons spokesperson told RIA Novosti on Friday.
Alyokhina, 24, one of three Pussy Riot members sentenced to two years in prison last August for their raucous performance in Moscow’s main Orthodox cathedral, is serving out her two-year sentence in a penal colony in the Perm region, some 700 miles from Moscow.
She asked to be isolated from her fellow inmates over “strained relations,” the spokesperson said.
A vegan, Alyokhina earlier complained about the meat-based diet at the colony
Along with 23-year-old Nadia Tolokonnikova, she has been jailed since her arrest in March.
The third member, Ekaterina Samutsevich, 30, was released after an appeal hearing on October 10.
A controversial row erupted recently between the women and their now former lawyers, in which both sides traded accusations over a bid to have the group’s name and image patented.