joining me are the women behind the masks, nadezhda tolokonnikova and masha alyokhina. also, masha gessen, a journalist and author whose book, "words will break cement," tells their story and their impact. i am pleased to have them here on this broadcast. let me begin. tell me what impact you think these two, by their protests, by their imprisonment, by the release have achieved in russia. >> that is a difficult question. what impact they have achieved. the option of achieving something through protest in russia is extremely limited. russia is a country living through a crackdown. the media have been controlled by the state for half a generation. despite that, they have managed to stage a light on the nature of russia's evolution today. on russia's slide into the middle asia. -- middle ages. courtheir statements in six months later. >> what did you think you were doing when you took on vladimir putin? we wanted a new future for ourselves. we were using the kinds of methods we were able to use. russia is a country where we do not have an opportunity to go and officially b

alyokhina. and the writer masha gressen. two are from ukraine yulia marushevska and ruslana marushevska. >> anything can help. i don't know. we can't guarantee anything. we live a country that can do away with a person without really thinking much about it. >> but we don't want to be-- putin is a person who built his power on the power of fear, and he supports his position based on the power of fear. and he's using fear, and so now, any attempts to intimidate us using a variety of means, those attempts do not have any result because we don't want to operate in this system. >> i grew up in a family with always respected traditions, and i always knew that i will spend my life in ukraine. i didn't think to live in another country, never. but after this protest, i saw the people, i-- i saw the country i dreamed to have, i dreamed to build, and that gave me even bigger belief in our prosperous future. >> when i was on the stage, my friend told me, snipers are looking for you. be careful. leave stage right now i said, no, i never