Freed Member of Pussy Riot Calls for Boycott of Russia’s Winter Olympics

The singer railed against Russia's prison system, calling it a "totalitarian machine"

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Within hours of her release from a Siberian prison, a member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot called on foreign countries to boycott the Winter Olympics.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24, and two of her band mates were jailed in 2012 for singing a protest song in a Moscow cathedral. An amnesty bill granted her an early release, which the singer dismissed as a “cosmetic measure.” “I’m calling for a boycott, for honesty,” the BBC reported the singer saying. “I’m calling [on Western governments] not to give in because of oil and gas deliveries from Russia.”

The amnesty bill freed 20,000 prisoners, including several high-profile opponents of Putin, shortly before Russia hosts the Winter Olympics in February.

[BBC]