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
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Political activist Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, reads a book about anarchism by U.S. author Bob Black in Moscow in January 2009.
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Police remove Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (left), Oleg Vorotnikov (bottom right), and other activists of the art group Voina from the court after they disrupted a hearing against the director of the Sakharov Center in Moscow in May 2009.
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Pyotr Verzilov (left) and his wife, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, attend the wedding anniversary of a fellow activist at an artist's studio in Moscow in January 2008.
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Activists Pyotr Verzilov (right) and his wife, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, prepare a migrant worker for a mock execution at a Moscow megastore in September 2008.