The feminist music collective Pussy Riot on Thursday asked journalists to stop referring to Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina as band members, saying that the duo has completely forgotten the "aspirations and ideals" of punk groups.
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were jailed in August 2012 for their part in the group's anti-Putin "punk prayer" performance at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral in February of that year.
A third band member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was also given a jail term, but her sentence was later suspended.
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were freed in December 2013 under an amnesty ordered by President Vladimir Putin and are now focusing on new careers defending the rights of prisoners.
In a statement on their LiveJournal blog, Pussy Riot's anonymous members said they are glad that the pair have been released from jail and wished them success in their new roles, but asked that media outlets stop calling them group members.
They also took exception to the fact that since Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina announced their intention to become human rights activists, media reports have incorrectly assumed that Pussy Riot no longer exists.
The six members who signed the statement with nicknames like "Puck" and "Cat" pointed out that five women took part in the "punk prayer," not two.
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