The Russian punk band Pussy Riot said on Tuesday it planned new protests against President Vladimir Putin and urged other women to stage protests, despite a trial at which three bandmates could be jailed.
The trial of Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Maria Alyokhina, 24, has merely strengthened the band's resolve, members of the group who are not on trial told Reuters.
They spoke during an interview at which the all-women group donned balaclavas and brightly coloured tights like those worn by their three band mates during the protest on the altar of a Russian Orthodox cathedral that led to their arrest.
"Three wonderful girls who were an inspiration for this group are in prison right now," one member, going by the name of Button and clad in a thick army green balaclava to guard her identity, said.
"It is hard for us without them. We feel it, but it means only one thing: We should be even stronger, maybe even bolder."
They gave no details of the performances they plan but said they hoped to inspire others to protest.
"I would like to urge other girls - put your balaclavas on, go out on to the street, to work, to your office, to the shop, go to the theatre in your balaclava, become a Pussy Riot. Stage your own riot," one of the other young women said.
Pussy Riot has been branded as immoral by some members of the Russian Orthodox Church and representatives of Putin's United Russia Party, but they are held up as victims and heroes by admirers.
Clad in rainbow colours, the women smoked, fidgeted with their makeshift balaclavas and laughed during a break from a cover shoot for a U.S. news magazine.
A few have been members of the protest group since it was formed last year in reaction to Putin's return to the presidency, the post he held from 2000 to 2008.
But others of the seven who spoke to Reuters said they had been inspired to join by the arrest of three of Pussy Riot's founders over their profanity-laced performance on Feb. 21 deriding Putin's close ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
