Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday he thought that three female members of punk band Pussy Riot who were sentenced to two years in jail last month for a political protest in a Moscow cathedral should be freed.

Medvedev, who was president for four years until May, appeared to be trying to disassociate himself from the jail terms which were condemned as excessive by the West and rights groups at home, as well as by liberal Russians. When president, Medvedev styled himself as a liberal reformer, and though he handed the presidency back to Vladimir Putin he has made it clear he wants to remain in politics and perhaps even return to the presidency one day.

The three band members - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich - were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred on August 17 after belting out a profanity-laced song criticizing Putin on the altar of Moscow's main cathedral in February.

They have been in jail since March and their appeal is due to start being heard on October 1.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/12/us-russia-pussyriot-idUSBRE88B15N20120912