By Maria Tsvetkova

MOSCOW, Oct 10 – A member of punk band Pussy Riot was freed on appeal on Wednesday but a Moscow court upheld prison sentences for two others imposed over a raucous cathedral protest against Vladimir Putin, who said they had got the jail terms they deserved.

Yekaterina Samutsevich walked free from Moscow City Court after six months behind bars but the appeal judge who suspended her two-year sentence said fellow band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina should serve out their terms.

“I have mixed feelings,” Samutsevich, 30, said outside the court, where she was greeted by applause and whistles from a crowd of about 150 people in the rain. “I’m happy, of course, but I am upset about the girls.”

Her lawyer told the court that Samutsevich had not performed the ‘punk protest’ near the altar of Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February because she had been stopped and led away before it took place.

Samutsevich’s father Stanislav said he would take his daughter away for a time to rest but that when she returned to Moscow “she will fight for the rest of the girls.”

Defence lawyers, relatives of the women and rights activists including the chairman of Putin’s own presidential human rights council, Mikhail Fedotov, criticised the split ruling.

“All three of those convicted in this case could certainly be given suspended sentences and that would be right,” Fedotov said, according to Interfax news agency.

In emotional statements from a courtroom cage during the appeal hearing, women from the band said they had not meant to offend the faithful but criticised Putin, who foes say has cracked down on dissent since starting a new Kremlin term in May.

“We’ll be going to a prison colony while civil war is brewing in this country. Putin is doing everything to make this happen.” Tolokonnikova said, raising her voice to drown out a judge who interrupted when she mentioned the president’s name. “He is setting people against each other.”

Tolokonnikova, 22, Alyokhina, 24, and Samutsevich, 30, were convicted in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for a “punk prayer” imploring the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin, and sentenced to two years in jail.

FRESH APPEAL

The case sparked an international outcry, with Western governments and pop star Madonna condemning the sentences as disproportionate, a view not widely shared in Russia where public opinion was shocked by the protest.

In an interview aired on Sunday to mark his 60th birthday, Putin defended the sentences: “It is right that they were arrested and it was right that the court took this decision because you cannot undermine the fundamental morals and values to destroy the country”.

Defence lawyer Mark Feigin said those comments had compromised the appeal and Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina told the hearing their protest was purely political.

“We did not want to offend believers,” Alyokhina, 24, told the court. “We came to the cathedral to speak out against the merger between spiritual figures and the political elite of our country.”

Alyokhina said she did not expect the appeal would succeed, however. “I have lost all hope in our courts,” she said.

After the ruling, Feigin said Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina would continue to fight their conviction on procedural grounds. He said the only difference between what the women did in the cathedral was that Samutsevich spent 15 seconds at the altar compared to 45 seconds for his clients.

LITTLE SYMPATHY

The women say their protest in the central Moscow cathedral was an acerbic comment on the close ties between the Kremlin and Russia’s dominant church, which considers about two-thirds of the population as its flock.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill had given Putin, then prime minister, unofficial but clear support in his successful campaign for a third presidential term, likening Putin’s years in power to a “miracle of God”.

Kremlin opponents said the jail terms were part of a clampdown on dissent that has produced restrictive laws and criminal cases against critics of Putin since he began his six-year term in May.

“We are in jail for our political convictions,” Alyokhina said. “Even if our sentences are upheld, we will not be silent. Even if we are in Mordovia or Siberia, we will not be silent, no matter how uncomfortable it is for you.”

Tolokonnikova told the court the group was not motivated by religious hatred: “It’s painful for me to hear that I am speaking out against religion. I have no religious hatred and never have.”

Sympathy for Pussy Riot is limited in Russia, where Patriarch Kirill has cast the protest as part of a concerted attack meant to undermine traditional Russian values and curb the church’s post-Soviet revival.

Parliament is considering stiffening punishment for offending religious feelings and Putin has warned that such offences – against Christians, Muslims or other believers in diverse Russia – could incite violence.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said last month the three had already served enough time, while the Russian Orthodox Church has said they should repent if they want forgiveness – a request they made clear they found inappropriate.

An opinion poll conducted on Sept. 21-24 by the independent Levada centre found 35 percent of Russians believe the two-year sentences were appropriate, while 34 percent said they were too lenient and only 14 percent said they were excessive.

(Additional reporting by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya, Gabriela Baczynska and Alissa de Carbonnel; Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Jon Boyle)