'Australia's asylum seeker policy is as bad as conditions in Russian prisons', claim Pussy Riot punk band as they speak at Sydney Festival of Dangerous Ideas



Members of a feminist punk band Pussy Riot have compared Australia’s asylum seeker policy to the Russian prisoner conditions

Masha Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova opened their panel discussion at Sydney's Festival of Dangerous Ideas

The pair attended the festival after calls for them to boycott but after opening their panel discussion, they hope it brought attention to the topic

Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were both sentenced to two years in jail after staging a protest performance in a Moscow cathedral in 2012



Members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot have compared Australia’s asylum seeker policy to the Russian prisoner conditions at Sydney's Festival of Dangerous Ideas on Saturday night.



Masha Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova opened their panel discussion at the Sydney Opera House, by addressing a proposal made by Australian activists that the pair boycott the festival, the Guardian reports.

'We were surprised by the problems here, such as detention camps, which are similar to what is happening in Russia,' Tolokonnikova told an audience in Sydney.

Masha Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova opened their panel discussion at Sydney's Festival of Dangerous Ideas

The pair met activists on Friday night to discuss the calls for them to boycott the festival over links between its co-organisers at the St James Ethics Centre and the federal government's asylum seeker strategy.

Instead of refusing to attend, the pair said that speaking at the festival would hopefully draw attention to the topic.



The members also called on Australia to withdraw its invitation to President Vladimir Putin to attend this year's G20 summit.

Members of a feminist punk band Pussy Riot have compared Australia's asylum seeker policy to the Russian prisoner conditions Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were both sentenced to two years in jail after staging a protest performance in a Moscow cathedral in 2012

'We think that this person has no place at the G20,' Alyokhina said.

When Prime Minister Tony Abbott addressed calls for Putin to be excluded from the G20 on Friday, he said it was weighing on his mind.

'It's not a decision which Australia really has a right to make unilaterally,' he told reporters.

Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were both sentenced to two years in jail and were released from prison in December 2013 after staging a protest performance in a Moscow cathedral in 2012.

But the women said the situation in Russia was so repressive they would not be able to repeat their cathedral performance.

Since their imprisonment, both women have campaigned to defend the rights of prisoners.



Members of the all-girl punk band Pussy Riot - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich sit in a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Moscow in August 2012

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Russian punk group Pussy Riot walks in front of the cathedral of Christ of Savior in Moscow in December 2013