Russian police detained two university professors who donned balaclavas inside Moscow’s main cathedral Thursday in honor of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot. Video footage shows the women laying flowers on the altar before having their masks yanked off by security. Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of Pussy Riot’s protest inside Christ the Saviour Cathedral where they sang a “punk prayer” condemning Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Two members of the group are now serving two-year terms for the protest in remote penal colonies known for their harsh conditions. A third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on appeal. She spoke outside the church about the impact of their protest a year ago.

Yekaterina Samutsevich: “The situation in Russia has changed. First of all, a lot of people learned about this problem. Those people who earlier didn’t pay attention to social problems, problems with the Russian Orthodox Church, problems with Putin and Patriarch Kirill, they learned about these problems, saw the huge amount of information on the Internet and television. They saw the court process, saw how we sat in the 'aquarium' [glass defendants’ cage], saw how much injustice happened. Now many of them are critical of Putin and the state authorities, just because of that, because they see all of this injustice.”