Pussy Riot's Alyokhina arrested at Moscow rally

MOSCOW, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Masha Alyokhina, activist and member of the band Pussy Riot, was among those arrested in Moscow Wednesday after a protest supporting Alexei and Oleg Navalny.

Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was convicted of fraud Tuesday. He received a suspended sentence, but his brother, Oleg, convicted on a similar count, received a sentence of three and a half years.

Over 100 people, including Alyokhina, were arrested at the spontaneous protest rally in Moscow's Manezh Square, near the Kremlin, which formed soon after the sentences were announced. She and anti-Putin blogger Arseny Bobrovsky hid inside a large, globe-shaped ornament through the night, with signs saying they would "occupy the globe" until Oleg Navalny's release.

"They came from two directions, took everyone's documents, and then literally used their arms to drag us out," Alyokhina told the news website Mediazona. "I consider all those who came out and spent the night in the ball to be heroes. It was -20 C. (four degrees Fahrenheit)."

She was released after three hours.