The release of Alyokhina from a prison in the city of Nizhny Novgorod under a Kremlin-backed amnesty was expected to be followed by that of her bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova from detention in Siberia.
Alyokhina, 25, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24, were jailed for hooliganism in 2012 for performing a crude “punk prayer” in Moscow’s main cathedral, denouncing President Vladimir Putin’s ties to the Russian Orthodox Church.
The pair had been due for release in March, but qualified for the amnesty proposed by Putin, in part because they are mothers of small children. A third band member had her sentence suspended earlier this year.
Their release comes just three days after the shock pardoning and liberation of anti-Kremlin tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which many saw as a bid by Putin to improve Russia's image ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics that it is hosting in Sochi in February.
Showing she had lost none of her fighting spirit during her incarceration, Alyokhina used her first interview after her release to slam the amnesty as a mere publicity stunt, and said that she would have preferred to remain in prison.
"I don't think it's an amnesty, it's a profanation," she told the Dozhd television channel, saying it only applied to a tiny minority of convicts. "I don't think the amnesty is a humanitarian act, I think it's a PR stunt."
"If I had a choice to refuse (the amnesty), I would" have done so, she said.
Russia's Supreme Court earlier this month ordered a review of the Pussy Riot case, saying that a lower court did not fully prove their guilt and did not take their family circumstances into consideration when passing on the verdict.
By Ruchi Singh
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com