Pussy Riot band members Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Moscow on Friday August 17.
(CNN) -- One of the members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot serving a two-year prison sentence has asked to be transferred to solitary confinement because of "strained relations" with other inmates, state media reported Friday.
Maria Alyokhina, 24, and fellow band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, were sentenced in August for performing a song critical of President Vladimir Putin in one of the Russian Orthodox Church's most important cathedrals in February.
They are serving their sentences at a penal colony in Perm, about 1,000 kilometers (700 miles) east of Moscow.
The state-run news agency Ria Novosti cited unidentified prison officials as saying that Alyokhina had made the transfer request. The agency noted that Alyokhina, a vegan, had previously complained about the meat-based diet at the prison colony.
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Yekaterina Samutsevich, a third member of the band who was sentenced with Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova, was freed from prison last month.
Following her release on a suspended sentence, Samutsevich vowed to continue the kind of political protest act that led to their imprisonment.
Footage of the brief but provocative protest action attracted worldwide attention after it was posted online.
It showed the band members, their faces shrouded by balaclavas, screaming "Mother Mary, please drive Putin away" inside Christ Savior Cathedral in Moscow, outraging many of the Russia church's faithful
The three women, who were arrested shortly after the protest act, were convicted of hooliganism. Two other members of the all-female group have fled Russia.
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina are expected to try to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
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A man walks past pro-Pussy Riot graffiti in Moscow. Band members were charged after screaming "Mother Mary please drive Putin away" during a concert inside Christ Savior Cathedral, in February.
Campaigners wear the band's trademark colorful balaclavas in a demonstration outside the Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
Supporters sit locked in a mock defendants cage outside a Moscow court. The band members have been charged with hooliganism aimed at "inciting religious hatred."
Demonstrators wear Pussy Riot-style masks outside a Moscow court. Singer Madonna also donned one of the masks during a recent gig in the city, telling the audience: "Everyone has the right to free speech, everywhere in the world. Maria, Katya, Nadia, I pray for you."
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