MOSCOW, February 18 (RAPSI) – Members of punk group Pussy Riot Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, who were detained Tuesday near the Winter Olympics host city of Sochi, have been released and they face no charges, according to the local police precinct.
Alexander Popkov, a lawyer who said he would be representing the women, told RIA Novosti that they had been detained on suspicion of stealing from a hotel.
A spokesperson for the police told RIA Novosti that Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were questioned in connection with a reported theft from the hotel where they had been staying. All the other guests of the hotel were questioned in connection with the theft.
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were recently freed after serving nearly 21 months of a two-year sentence for hooliganism. They were jailed for performing the “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Savior cathedral as part of a political protest in 2012.
The activists were pardoned in December 2013, pursuant to a broad amnesty spearheaded by Russian President Vladimir Putin.