KOMMERSANT (Russia) LIFE NEWS (Russia)

KAZAN - Investigators found the bodies of a 76-year-old retired woman and her 38-year-old daughter in an apartment in Kazan. Both women appeared to have been stabbed to death.

Heinous as the crime was, it wouldn't have bound to generate national press coverage, except for what police found on one of the apartment walls. Someone, presumably the murderer, had written “Free Pussy Riot” in English with the women’s blood, Kommersant reports. The enormous red letters covered almost the entirety of the wall, as you can see in this photo from Life News.

None of the investigators actually think that the murder was committed by Pussy Riot supporters. Investigators consider the crime the work of either someone high on drugs or mentally ill. The murder most likely took place between August 24 and 26.

Petr Verzilov, husband of one of the members of Pussy Riot, said that this was provocation on the part of those who would like to discredit the group. He compared it to another act last week when a group of vandals calling itself “The People’s Wave” chopped down several crosses that marked memorial sites, including some at churches that were destroyed during the Soviet Union.

The group who cut down the crosses announced that the actions were revenge against the Russian Orthodox Church for locking up the women from Pussy Riot, Kommersant reports.