Pytor Verzilov is the husband of Nadezhda Andreyevna Tolokonnikova also known as “Nadya Tolokno” member of punk-rock band Pussy Riot who has been jailed since February 2012 along with other band members. His 23-year-old wife is serving a two-year term for performing a “punk prayer” in Russia’s main Orthodox cathedral protesting ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin. Pytor’s wife was charged with hooliganism after a political performance at Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow that called for the Virgin Mary to “rid us of Putin!”
The couple were able to see each other for the first time in five months. Verzilov attended the band’s trial and said t the time to anchor Lisa Mullins that the proceedings reminded some people of the Spanish Inquisition.
Pyotr Verzilov addresses supporters in this video posted in May 2012.
Last year Pyotr Verzilov traveled to the U.S. the week before the trial to accept the LennonOno Grant for Peace Award on the women’s behalf and continue rallying support for their release.
Pytor who was born 25 October 1987 studied philosophy at Moscow State University but as a boy he lived and attended School in Toronto graduating in 2003. Because of his residency Verzilov was able to obtained a Canadian passport and residency rights. He met his future wife at university where they both share the common interest for outrageous performances as members of the art group Voina.
At some point the couple got married and his wife gave birth to their only child, a daughter named Gera born in 2008. After his wife and two other members of the bad were arrested and consequently jailed Pytor became more noticeable and was appointed the unofficial spokesperson of the band. Before that he caused some trouble when during a 2010 trial in a Moscow court he burst in and released a bag of live cockroaches; a year earlier in 2009 he was accused of being a police informer which he described as lies.
In late 2012 he was destitute by the band calling his actions “treacherous to punk”
The hubby of the most famous face of the Pussy Riot band recently had a scare when it was reported his wife was missing during her prison colony transfer. After not hearing from his imprisoned wife following her hunger strike that put her in the prison hospital, The Huffington Post reports Pyotr Verzilov wrote on Twitter his wife is on her way to a new penal colony in Siberia, deep in the Krasnoyarsk region.
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