- Music
- 14 Nov 13
Authorities have finally revealed the location of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova
Pyoter Verzilov’s fears have been confirmed; his wife, Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, has been moved to a penal colony in the depths of Siberia.
Her terrified family, who appealed to authorities for information after the activist’s disappearance three weeks ago, received a statement issued by Russia's human rights ombudsmen Vladimir Lukin last Tuesday revealing that Tolokonnikova has been moved to a colony 2,600 miles east of Moscow. This places her in a far more isolated location than before, and recalls her husband’s last comment to Rolling Stone; “They want to cut her off from the outside world.“
The transfer comes after Tolokonnikova protested about "slavery-like" conditions in the Mordovia prison she was detained in, describing in an open letter how she was forced to work 16 to 17 hours a day, regularly got less than four hours sleep, and was subjected to humiliating punishments from guards. On 23 of September she went on hunger strike in protest. The state of her health is not known, although Vladimir Lukin writes “I have been told that, according to her wishes, she has been placed [in the penal colony's] medical ward.”
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Tolokonnikova and fellow member Maria Alyokhina are due to be released in March 2014.