Photo: Mark Grigoriev @rockamark

Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina has been released from prison in Nizhny Novgorod after receiving amnesty. Masha says that she would have refused the amnesty and the release if she could and asked for any legal means to remain in prison. Alyokhina said other inmates had received threats from the prison administration, and she wanted to serve out her term to help protect them.

Masha’s first order of business was to meet with human rights activists about conditions for her fellow inmates, she is now on the way to the train station to head to Moscow.

We are getting word that Nadya may be freed shortly.

With lawyer Peter Zaikin. Photo: Sergey Karpuhin/Reuters