Pussy Riot members freed under Russian amnesty

A member of Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot has called for an international boycott of the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year.

Speaking to reporters in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, where she was released from prison earlier today, Nadezhda Tolokonnikov said the amnesty law that set her free was merely a "cosmetic measure" ahead of Sochi 2014.

"I'm calling for a boycott, for honesty. I'm calling [on Western governments] not to give in because of oil and gas deliveries from Russia," she said.

Two members of Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot have ridiculed President Vladimir Putin's amnesty that led to their early release from prison claiming it was a propaganda stunt.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24, shouted "Russia without Putin" following her release from a Siberian prison, hours after band mate Maria Alyokhina, 25, was freed from jail in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod.

The pair were jailed for two years in prison for protesting against Putin in a Russian church in 2012.

"The border between being free and not free is very thin in Russia, a totalitarian state," Tolokonnikova told reporters outside prison in Krasnoyarsk.

The pair claimed Pussy Riot would unite their efforts and continue to protest against human rights abuses in the country, with Tolokonnikova claiming, "Everything is just starting, so fasten your seat belts".

Watch: Arctic 30 journalist speaks of his ordeal in Russian jail

A second Pussy Riot member has been freed from prison under an amnesty.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova joins Maria Alyokhina in being released early from a two-year sentence for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred".

Ms Alyokhina slammed the decision as a "PR stunt".

A freelance journalist who spent almost four months in a Russian prison alongside Greenpeace protestors has spoken of his ordeal to Daybreak.

Kieron Bryan was one of six Britons arrested by the Russian coastguard after they boarded their ship the Arctic Sunrise at the end of August.

"We were told on the day we were taken ashore, that we would only be on the shore for four hours and that we would be back on the ship the following day at the latest.

"We all went with one set of clothes. No one had any toiletries to keep their hygiene up. And as soon as we got the detention centre for two months we realised we were totally ill equipped."

Kieron said there was a "slim chance" he would be home on Christmas Eve but "it was more likely" he would return to Britain by the end of the week.

Read more: Amnesty hope rise for the Greenpeace activists

A member of Pussy Riot has critcisised a prison amnesty that led to her early release from prison as a "PR stunt", claiming she would have refused to leave jail if she had the choice.

Maria Alyokhina was freed early from a two-year prison sentence for a church protest against President Valdimir Putin.

"I do not think it is a humanitarian act," Alyokhina said of the amnesty which was initiated by President Vladimir Putin, in comments to Russian internet and TV channel Dozhd.

"I think it is a PR stunt."