Pussy Riot free to riot once more

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon and Kremlin critic, was released from a lengthy period in prison last week after a pardon from Vladimir Putin. Khodorkovsky had been in prison since 2003 and was convicted in 2005 of tax evasion and fraud. He was due for release next year. Joining him on the early release train, we have Maria Alyokhina, a member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot who was serving a two-year jail term for her part in a performance critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Alyokhina's release from a prison in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia was confirmed by Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of fellow band member and inmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who is expected to be released later today (Moscow Time). The pair's release, about two months before their prison sentences were due to end, was approved last week when Russian lawmakers backed a sweeping amnesty law announced by Putin in a move related to the country's upcoming Olympics. The new amnesty law is also expected to free some detained Greenpeace activists. This is all simply an effort to burnish Putin's image in time for the Games, but it will take much more than releasing several political prisoners to make him leader of the year, and he can start by getting rid of that stupid anti-gay law.