Pussy Riot members sent to far-flung prisons, lawyer says

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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 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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