Two members of the Russian feminist band "Pussy Riot," who were arrested Saturday on charges stemming from a February demonstration inside a Moscow church, have now declared a hunger strike, RT reports.
Band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina have announced the hunger strike in protest of their arrest over the weekend and the court's decision today to keep them behind bars, supporters told the Russian news site Gazeta.ru. The women could face up to seven years in prison, and their attorneys argue that the women should be released on bail because they have young children and are not flight risks.
Police arrested six people on Saturday on charges stemming from a Feb. 21 incident at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral in which five members of the band broke into the church and staged a five-minute performance before police caught up to them, the Moscow Times reported.
The five church performers, just a few of the dozens of women who make up the band, pulled the stunt in protest of the church's alleged support of Vladimir Putin, the Moscow Internet television station SOTV reports.
Since forming last September, the group has conducted a number of flash performances in visible areas around Moscow as part of their declared mission "to confront Russia’s authoritarian rule, sexism, ethnic intolerance, and social atomization," the station reports.
The group certainly riled church authorities with their latest stunt. In response to the Feb. 21 incident, leading officials in the Orthodox Church are now calling for legislation declaring blasphemy a criminal offense, according to Russian state news agency Rianovosti.
WATCH: Video of the band performing at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral: