Police have stepped up security today, outside the Moscow courthouse for the appeal hearing of three members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot.

Yekaterina Samutsevich, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina are appealing against their two-year prison sentences for storming the altar of Moscow's biggest cathedral and performing a "punk prayer" calling on the Virgin Mary to push Russian leader Vladimir Putin away

The father of one of the Pussy Riot members, Andrei Tolokonnikov, speaking outside to press, said the verdict depends on Russian President Vladimir Putin .

"I think this all depends on the authorities. If there is a signal to get revenge, they will get revenge. If there is a signal to keep them safe because Amnesty International and the whole (international) community is on their case, then no revenge. Still, I think Putin in fact feels himself very comfortable. In the Pussy Riot case he found himself in a position of a little villain: yes, I eat children, but so what, it's no more than that. Right? So he's just a little villain, not a big one, it's a comfortable story for him."

In an interview granted to a Russian television channel last week, Putin said the women had been justly sentenced, and a two-year jail sentence was fair. A view at odds with the west, who believe the three women's two-year sentences as excessive .While Russian opposition groups, see the Pussy riot girls treatment, as part of a crackdown on dissent since Putin's return to the presidency in May. The case is currently on going.

Written and presented by Ann Salter