Two members of the female punk rock collective Pussy Riot who were jailed for performing a protest song in a Russian cathedral have been removed from their Moscow jails and moved to prison camps notorious for their harsh and strict conditions.

Maria Alyokhina (24) is now in a prison colony in Perm, while Nadezhda Tolkonnikova (22) has been interned at Mordovia in the centre of the country. The pair are likely to be sharing confined living conditions with as many as 40 other women, engaging in manual work, such as sewing military uniforms, for which they'll be paid the equivalent of about €22 per month.

Pussy Riot's official Twitter account condemned internment of Alyokhina and Tolkonnikova, stating that "these are the very cruellest camps".

Three Pussy Riot members were originally prosecuted for "hooliganism", with one, Yekaterina Samutsevich, released on appeal. A further two members have fled Russia for fear of prosecution by the Vladimir Putin regime.