Russian authorities may take away the two children of locked-up Pussy Riot band members following their two-year sentence for performing an anti-Putin protest song.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Maria Alyokhina, 24, were scrambling to arrange foster-care agreements to prevent social workers from taking the tots away from their families.
“As a precaution, we have prepared all the necessary paperwork to officially take custody of the girls’ children,” Mark Feigin, Tolokonnikova’s attorney, told the Sunday Times of London.
The singers have not seen their children since being imprisoned five months ago.
As global outrage grew, hits to “Punk Prayer” on their YouTube channel soared to almost 2 million.
The band, born last year, has only six songs, but punk legends predict the group is about to take off.
“They better start writing while they’re locked up,” said Cro-Mags lead singer John Joseph, who supports the Russian artists. “They’ll have some real fuel for the fire while they are locked up.”