Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner, Vldimir Lukin, has made the most unequivocal statement by an official to date about the incarceration of three members of the punk protest group Pussy Riot, who have been imprisoned since February after two attention-grabbing performances in Red Square and Moscow’s main Orthodox cathedral.  It is the latter performance that has drawn the most ire, offending Russia’s strong Orthodox sensibilities.  But despite his personal feelings about their actions, which he claims he took as a personal offense (‘I’m absolutely prepared to call myself an injured party’), Lukin clearly states that the ongoing imprisonment of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich is retributive and ‘absolutely against our law‘:

“There’s one problem that must be solved as soon as possible – it should preferably have been solved yesterday: why on earth are they still behind bars?” Lukin said.