Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that the three female members of the punk rock band Pussy Riot who have been imprisoned should be released.

Medvedev said the incarceration of the three is “unproductive.”

The Pussy Riot inmates were sentenced to two years in jail for "hooliganism driven by religious hatred." They have already served five months.

The incarceration of the punk rockers has attracted massive global media coverage as well as pleas from Western musicians calling for their release, including Sting and Paul McCartney.

They were originally arrested for performing a "prayer" inside Moscow's principal cathedral, in which they beseeched the Virgin Mary to save the country from President Vladimir Putin.

The young women's case comes up for appeal on Oct. 1.

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