United Russia official Vadim Tyulpanov has described jailed member of punk band Pussy Riot Nadezhda Tolokonnikova as the most attractive women in the country.
"You could nominate Tolokonnikova as the most beautiful girl in Russia (on all criteria!)," the Federation Council member wrote on his Twitter account Tuesday. "We love Nadezhda!" he said in another tweet.
The secretary of United Russia's St. Petersburg branch, Artemy Galitsyn, replied to the tweet, calling Tolokonnikova "very photogenic" and "pretty."
The men also praised Tolokonnikova for her endurance while in prison: "She overcame everything that has befallen her with dignity. Nadezhda deserves leniency, although I do not approve of her actions." Tyulpanov said that fellow jailed Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina also deserved leniency but spoke of Tolonnikova from his perspective "as a man."
Both women received two year's in a prison colony in February 2012 for a song performed in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral that criticized President Vladimir Putin, at the time prime minister from United Russia.
The discussion of Tolokonnikova on Twitter between Tyulpanov and Golitsyn was soon joined by Vitaly Milonov, a member of St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly known for his uncompromising conservative positions and opposing homosexual relations.
In response to Novaya Gazeta's correspondent Alexandra Garmazhalova, Milonov tweeted: "Only perverts can speak of Tolokno's beauty."
Milonov said Tolokonnikova's conduct was inexcusable, referring to the performance of the art group Voina at a Moscow museum in February 2008, when she had public sex while in the latter stages of her pregnancy.
The activist's current prison term ends in March, though she could be released early under an amnesty in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution, which passed its first reading by the State Duma on Tuesday.
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