Family of Pussy Riot Member Says She's Cut Off

Husband hasn't heard from her in nearly 2 weeks since transfer
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 2, 2013 10:47 AM CDT
Family of Pussy Riot Member Says She's Cut Off
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, listens to a court proceeding from behind bars in this April file photo.   (AP Photo)

The family of jailed Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova accuse Russian authorities of trying to cut her off from them and the outside world, reports BuzzFeed. Tolokonnikova's husband says he hasn't had any contact with his wife since she got shipped off by train to a new prison on Oct. 21. The transfer came after the second of two hunger strikes she staged to protest prison conditions. She got her wish to be transferred from a penal colony in the Mordova region, but officials are keeping her new location secret.

“This is how the system makes a person disappear without a trace for weeks,” her husband tells the Daily Beast. He adds to Buzzfeed: “This is basically the only way they have to punish Nadya—'Let’s cut her off from the outside world.'" Her father, meanwhile, complains that "no one knows anything. ... Is she sick? Has she been beaten?” Still, Tolokonnikova and bandmate Maria Alyokhina remain on track to be released in March on their "hooligan" charges, stemming from a protest concert in a Moscow church. (More Pussy Riot stories.)

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