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2 Pussy Riot Rockers Flee Country

Pussy Riot rockers performing "Putin chickened out!" on Red Square in January. Wikimedia Commons

Two Pussy Riot rockers have fled the country, fearing prosecution from investigators out to catch remaining members of the controversial punk group.

"Two of our band members have successfully left the country in connection with the search! They will gather foreign feminists to prepare for new protests!" the group wrote on its official Twitter account late Saturday.

The rockers' flight comes after investigators told Interfax on Aug. 20 that they were still searching for two unidentified Pussy Riot members who took part in the group's raucous Feb. 4 performance in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.

Band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich were all given two-year prison sentences for that performance, which criticized President Vladimir Putin and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill.

The Pussy Riot case has drawn stinging rebukes from international rights groups and prompted supporters to stage protests in churches across Europe.

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