Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that two jailed members of the punk band Pussy Riot may soon be freed under an amnesty bill, The Associated Press reported. The bill will also enable 30 people arrested in a Greenpeace protest against arctic oil drilling to avoid trial. The moves come just a couple of months before Russia hosts the Winter Olympics in February, Christian Science Monitor reported.
"I might soon be going home to my family, but I should never have been charged and jailed in the first place," said Peter Wilcox, the Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise's U.S. captain.
"We sailed north to bear witness to a profound environmental threat but our ship was stormed by masked men wielding knives and guns ... We were never the criminals here," Wilcox added.
Putin also said he may soon pardon jailed former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky who has languished in prison for over a decade. The pardon comes on humanitarian grounds as his mother is ill, according to the BBC. Khodorkovsky representatives said they need to meet him before commenting but that the family would be "elated to seem finally freed," according to the BBC.
"It is too early to comment on his pardon. All his lawyers as well as his press-center are unaware of any petition being submitted,as Putin told after the press conference," added journalist Oksana Chelysheva.
Putin said the amnesty was not drafted with the Greenpeace activists or Pussy Riot in mind. It was passed, he said, to mark the 20th anniversary of Russia's post-Soviet constitution.
"[The amnesty] is neither linked to Greenpeace, nor this group," said Putin.
"I was not sorry that [Pussy Riot] ended up behind bars. I was sorry that they were engaged in such disgraceful behavior, which in my view was degrading to the dignity of women. They went beyond all boundaries," the Russian President added.
Pussy Riot's case has been adopted by human rights groups, like Amnesty International, which viewed them as women of conscience. They have also garnered support by a bevy of musicians, including Madonna, Sting, Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono.
The State Duma, or lower house, unanimously approved the amnesty proposed by Putin. Some human rights activists have said that the amnesty bill is far too narrow,
