[Video] Madonna Introduces Pussy Riot at 2014 Amnesty International Concert
The 2014 Amnesty International Concert brought in two very special guests last night (Feb. 5) at Barclays Center in New York City. These were; the recently-released-from-jail; Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina of protest group Pussy Riot.
Queen of Pop Madonna, who had asked for the immediate liberation of the jailed Pussy Riot members in a speech during her Russian leg of her "MDNA" tour in Moscow last summer, was the chosen person to introduce Nadezhda and Maria on Wednesday night at the Amnesty Concert. Madonna looked very happy to share the stage with them.
Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were sent to jail in early 2012 on hooliganism charges. In February that year, the entire Pussy Riot group broke into the Cathedral of Christ the Savior of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow where they "removed their winter clothes, put on colorful balaclavas, walked up the steps leading to the altar, and began to jump around, punching the air". They were sentenced to a two-year imprisonment. They were eventually released from jail early, in December 2013, after Russia's state Duma approved a general amnesty for various prisoners (just in time for the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi).