A Moscow court is due to deliver its verdict on August 17 on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred against three women from the feminist performance-art group Pussy Riot. The case against Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich -- who face up to seven years in jail -- has sparked an international outcry. Here's a look at the early activism of Pussy Riot members and their families and friends.
Pussy Riot: The Early Years
1
Activists Yekaterina Samutsevich (left), Oleg Vorotnikov (center), and Natalia Sokol travel on the outside of a commuter train near Moscow after refusing to buy tickets in June 2008. Samutsevich later became a member of Pussy Riot.
2
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (bottom right) and fellow activists celebrate a wake for conceptual artist Dmitry Prigov in a Moscow metro carriage in August 2007. Tolokonnikova later became a member of Pussy Riot.
3
Political activists Oleg Vorotnikov (left), Pyotr Verzilov (center), and his wife, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, fetch water while living together in a car shed in Moscow in July 2008.
4
Political activist Pyotr Verzilov (right) supervises the mock execution of a migrant worker and a gay man in a Moscow megastore in September 2008. Verzilov is the husband of Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.