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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Riot police detain a pregnant Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (center) during a dissenters' march in Moscow in March 2008.
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Political activist Natalia Sokol brushes her hair as Gera, the baby of fellow activist Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, lies on a mattress in the car shed that served as the home of the Voina activist group in Moscow in July 2008.
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Activists Yekaterina Samutsevich (right), Pyotr Verzilov (second from right), and his wife, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, attend the birth of Kasper, the first child of Oleg Vorotnikov (left) and Natalia Sokol, in a secret hideout in Moscow in June 2009.
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Activist Yekaterina Samutsevich reads a book as she waits for the birth of fellow Voina member Natalia Sokol's first child, Kasper, in a secret hideout in Moscow in June 2009.