Missing Pussy Riot Member Was Sent to Penal Camp in Siberia

Jailed Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova — who is currently
serving the last few months of her two-year sentence for her participation
in an anti-Putin performance — is being sent to a prison colony in the
depths of Siberia, according to her relatives and lawyers. Last week her
family reported that they hadn't had contact with her in 10 days, leading
many to believe that she'd gone missing.

Tolokonnikova's husband Petya Verzilov says that he's received "100
percent reliable" information that indicates that Nadya is being moved to a
prison in the Krasnoyarsk region, which is four times zones and 2,000 miles
from Moscow. Verzilov believes that this comes as a result of her public
statements against Russia, the most recent of which took the form of an open
letter about the deplorable "slave labor-like" conditions in prison, which
included 17-hour workdays, brutal beatings and humiliating punishments.
After Tolokonnikova first wrote about the prison conditions, she was placed
on an "information blockade," which was obviously meant to remove her
from the media spotlight. Relocating her to one of the most remote regions
on the planet will very effectively further this goal; isolating her from her
family and lawyers also serves to punish Nadya for speaking out.
"They do not have the ability to put on the usual psychological or physical
pressure they can use with inmates because of the high profile of the case,"
Verzilov told the Guardian . "So they have chosen this as the punishment
instead."

"Pussy Riot's Tolokonnikova 'is being punished with move to Siberian
prison'" [Guardian]
Image via AP.