The Russian justice system may have failed the three members of Pussy Riot who were sentenced to two years in labor camps, but today brings the potential of clemency from an unexpected source: Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Prime Minister and (to greatly undersell their relationship) close ally to Vladimir Putin. The Associated Pressreports that Medvedev has said additional prison time for the feminist punk band/activist art collective members would be “unproductive.” According to The Wall Street Journal, he told fellow members of the United Russia Party, “The term is very strong. I would even say a terrible burden… I don’t want to replace the judge … but the time they have already served is, in essence, more than enough to make them think about what happened, whether it was from their own stupidity or for other reasons.”
As a result, the three incarcerated women — Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich — may be free as early as October 1st, when their case goes up for appeal. It’s unclear why Medvedev has chosen to speak out about Pussy Riot such a long time after the trial, but we’re hoping those awesome/terrifying video dispatches had something to do with it.