MOSCOW, December 27 (RAPSI) – Pardoned Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina aren’t looking for any financial help from the recently freed YUKOS ex-CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the women said during a Dozhd TV channel press conference held Friday.

“There’s no talk of financial support. But he is important to us as a strong person, an incredible human being put through a more severe prison experience than we had,” Tolokonnikova said.

Earlier, Pussy Riot members wrote Khodorkovsky an open letter, seeking his moral support. The activists clarified that their human rights activism will be supported through crowd-funding only.

Earlier, Tolokonnikova said she and Alyokhina planned to work together to fight for the rights of prisoners as a first order of business after their release.

Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were freed after serving nearly 21 months of a two-year sentence for hooliganism. They were jailed for performing a “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Savior cathedral as part of a political protest in 2012.

Khodorkovsky was released last week from serving out the remaining duration of his sentence as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree pardoning him.

The Duma passed the amnesty bill, which was originally submitted by President Putin, in its first reading.  The amnesty was arranged to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.