Two jailed members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot have been released following an amnesty declared by President Vladimir Putin.

Both women immediately went back on the offensive, describing the amnesty as a Kremlin public relations stunt before the Winter Olympics.

Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were granted amnesty last week in a measure characterised by critics as the Kremlin's attempt to soothe criticism of Russia's human rights record.

The third member Yekaterina Samutsevich had been released on a suspended sentence months after all three were found guilty of hooliganism and sentenced to two years in prison for a protest at a Moscow cathedral in March 2012.

Ms Tolokonnikova walked out of prison in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk yesterday flashing a V sign.

She said that Ms Alekhina and herself would now set up a human rights group to help prisoners.

Just hours before, Ms Alekhina had been released from another prison colony outside Nizhny Novgorod.

The Russian parliament passed the amnesty last week, allowing the release of thousands of inmates.

Ms Alekhina and Ms Tolokonnikova qualified because they have small children.

But Ms Alekhina said she would have stayed behind bars to serve her full term if she had been free to reject the amnesty.

"If I had a chance to turn it down, I would have done it, no doubt about that," she claimed, saying the amnesty covered fewer than 10 per cent of the prison population and only a fraction of women with children behind bars.