Pussy Riot members are confirmed to be due for release according to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. Putin confirmed that the two punk group members were allowed to be freed from confinement under an agreed amnesty but continued to call their church protest against him as "disgraceful."

24-year-old Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and 25-year-old Maria Alyokhina are currently serving a jail sentence extended for two years as sanction for a crude "punk prayer" performance in the main cathedral of Moscow. The two rallied against Putin and his connections to the Russian Orthodox church.

The two women were set to be freed in March but their release may come sooner than expected under the president's amnesty. An earlier release may have been granted in part because the two members of the famous punk feminist group are mothers of small children.

The amnesty will also allow the 30 people involved in a Greenpeace protest against oil drilling in the Arctic to avoid court trail. This will remove two obstacles in the partnership with the West before the onset of the Winter Olympics which will be hosted by Russia in February.

Putin later on emphasized that the amnesty was not created with the Greenpeace protesters or the Pussy Riot members in mind. It was agreed, he continued, to highlight the 20th anniversary of the post-Soviet constitution of Russia.

Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were also made famous after going on a hunger strike shortly after being jailed as a continuation of their cause.
"It (the amnesty) is neither linked to Greenpeace, nor this group (Pussy Riot)," the Russian president said in an annual news conference.

Putin also explained that he had no doubt concerning his country's manner of handling the two cases, despite the criticism it drew from Western nations and a few global celebrities.

"I was not sorry that they (the Pussy Riot members) ended up behind bars," he shared. "I was sorry that they were engaged in such disgraceful behavior, which in my view was degrading to the dignity of women."