Jailed Member of Pussy Riot Announces That She’s on a Hunger Strike

One of two members of a female punk rock collective jailed for staging a protest against Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in an Orthodox church announced a hunger strike on Monday, citing brutal conditions and threats of violence from guards in a prison camp in the remote Russian region of Mordovia.

In an open letter, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of Pussy Riot, the group known for staging “punk protests” in brightly colored balaclavas, described beatings among inmates sanctioned by the prison administration, “slavery-like conditions” in a sewing workshop, and punitive bans on prisoners taking showers for days at a time.

“I refuse to participate in slave labor at the camp until the penal colony authorities begin to work under the law and treat women inmates as people rather than cattle,” Ms.Tolokonnikova wrote in the letter, which was published on the Lenta.ru news service.

Ms. Tolokonnikova, along with band members Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were sentenced to two years in prison each for calling on the Virgin Mary to “Get Rid of Putin” in a punk prayer in Moscow’s main cathedral in 2011. Ms. Tolokonnikova and Ms. Alyokhina were moved to penal colonies in October. Ms. Samutsevich was released with a suspended sentence, on appeal.

Ms. Tolokonnikova’s letter has refocused attention on the prosecution of the band for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” a charge that provoked international criticism against Russia by popular musicians and prompted Amnesty International to declare the women prisoners of conscience.

In the letter, Ms. Tolokonnikova said that prisoners were intimidated from making complaints by prison officials. When she lobbied against 16-hour work days sewing police uniforms, one official told her that if the other inmates “find out you are behind this, then you won’t be in pain, because there’s nothing to be in pain about in the afterlife,” she wrote.

Investigative officials for the region where the prison is located said that Ms. Tolokonnikova’s complaints would be reviewed, the Interfax news service reported.

Irina Khrunova, a lawyer for Ms. Tolokonnikova, said in a telephone interview that she had read the letter while at the prison last week, and that she had submitted a formal complaint to law enforcement over conditions in the penal colony. The prison camp in Mordovia is “one of the cruelest” in Russia, she added.

In a statement, the prison service in Mordovia accused Ms. Khrunova and Ms. Tolokonnikova’s husband of coercion, saying that both approached the deputy head of the prison and demanded that Ms. Tolokonnikova be transferred, or the official would be accused of threatening Ms. Tolokonnikova’s life.

Ms. Khurnova said she had requested a transfer for Ms. Tolokonnikova but denied that she issued any threats.

“I’m not going to try to read the tea leaves on this,” she said when asked what response the letter will provoke. “I don’t trust the authorities at the prison, Nadezhda has taken a very serious step, and now anything may happen to her.”

Follow Andrew Roth on Twitter @ARothmsk.