(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121010-pussyriot-4a.photoblog600.jpg)Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP - Getty ImagesMembers of the all-girl punk band Pussy Riot: Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass-walled cage in a court in Moscow, on Oct. 10, 2012. By NBC News staff and wire servicesTwo members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot convicted of protesting against President Vladimir Putin in a cathedral have been sent to prisons far from Moscow despite requesting to serve out their terms in the capital, a lawyer said on Monday.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld (http://twitter.com/NBCNewsWorld) Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" in August and sentenced to two years in jail, a punishment that many in the West said was too harsh.
Their stunt -- bursting into Moscow's main Russian Orthodox Cathedral to urge the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin -- infuriated the church and many Russians. But Kremlin critics said their trial was part of a crackdown on dissent orchestrated by Putin, who began a six-year presidential term in May.
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