Punk prayer protester ‘in single cell at own request’

Jailed Pussy Riot punk ­protester Maria Alyokhina has been moved to a single-person cell for her own protection because of tension with other prisoners, her lawyer and Russia’s prison service said.

Alyokhina, 24, is serving a two-year sentence for a protest against president Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main Russian Orthodox cathedral. Activists said her trial, and that of two bandmates, was part of a crackdown on dissent.

“There was a conflict” between Alyokhina and other inmates and “she was tansferred to a individual cell”, her lawyer Irina Khrunova said. She said it was not yet clear what caused the conflict.

Prison authorities said ­Alyokhina was moved at her own request.

“Some tensions arose in relationships and, apparently to prevent this situation from escalating, she decided to submit a request to the prison leadership and they moved her to a one-person cell,” a prison service spokeswoman said.

She dismissed Russian media reports Alyokhina argued with inmates over religion at the Ural Mountains prison about 700 miles north-east of Moscow. Pussy Riot’s protest offended many members of Russia’s Orthodox Church.

The spokeswoman also said she had no information regarding a report that Alyokhina had been threatened by cellmates.

Alyokhina’s main meal is taken to her cell and she is accompanied by a guard when she leaves it, the spokeswoman said.

Alyokhina and two bandmates were convicted in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for their “punk prayer” at Christ the Saviour ­Cathedral in which they called on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of president Putin.