The interview segments on The Colbert Report are usually little more than an excuse for host Stephen Colbert to show off his virtuoso in-character improvisational skills, while the guests play along with varying degrees of success. 
 
 On Tuesday night’s Report, however, Colbert met his quick-witted match in Pussy Riot, the punk band whose members were imprisoned, then released, for insulting Russian President Vladmir Putin. Their feat was all the more impressive for the fact that they conducted the interview through a translator, which at first seemed like it might become drag on the interview. 
 
 Instead, the responses from Pussy Riot members Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina were so sharp, funny, and at times poignant, that the presence of the translator only served to hang the viewer on every word. They talked about their imprisonment and release, took shots at Putin, daring him to put them back in jail, and provided alternately hilarious and sobering commentary on the state of Russia’s anti-gay laws. Sometimes, it seems, humor isn’t lost in translation, it is revealed. 
 
 Here’s the video of Colbert’s interview with Pussy Riot, in two parts, from Comedy Central: 
 
 
 
 
 
 Part Two: 
 
 
 
 
 
 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina European Pressphoto Agency 
 
 The unmasked members of the punk-protest group Pussy Riot are getting a crash-course in American pop culture during their latest U.S. trip. 
 
 In recent weeks, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, the public faces of the balaclava-clad political activist posse, have posed for photographs at the Vanity Fair/Bloomberg White House Correspondents Dinner afterparty, talked obsessive tweeting with Dick Costolo, Twitter's TWTR -0.23% Twitter Inc. U.S.: NYSE $55.29 -0.13 -0.23% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 29.61M AFTER HOURS $54.88 -0.41 -0.74% Volume (Delayed 15m) : 132,269 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap $34.10 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $359,112 10/10/14 Messaging App KakaoTalk Offers... 10/09/14 Smile! Marketing Firms Are Min... 10/08/14 Ruchir Sharma: The Billionaire... More quote details and news » TWTR in Your Value Your Change Short position chief executive, and they said they met with staff from the Netflix political series "House of Cards" in New York. Most recently, they gave a public talk at Frieze, the art fair on New York's Randall's Island. 
 
 The women, who were sentenced to two years in prison after a performance critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, were released late last year. Last week, they attended to serious business, too, pressing Capitol Hill lawmakers to put 16 Russian officials on a sanctions list for human-rights violations. And they advocated for Cecily McMillan, the Occupy Wall Street protester found guilty of assault and now facing up to seven years in prison. 
 
 Over coffee at a trendy New York hotel, Ms. Tolokonnikova, a 24-year-old conceptual artist clad in a black leather jacket and fishnet stockings, reminisced about past political actions in Moscow while taking an occasional sip from the small creamer on the table. Alongside her, 25-year-old Ms. Alyokhina, wearing her signature blue Prada eyeglasses with a pack of Russian cigarettes tucked in her pocket, recalled hiding from police in cafe bathrooms so they could conduct Skype interviews with journalists just before their 2012 arrest. 
 
 Through a translator—Ms. Tolokonnikova's husband, Pyotr Verzilov —they spoke with the Journal about serving time, Miley Cyrus and the "House of Cards" meeting. An edited transcript follows. 
 
 Can you tell me about life in prison? Were you allowed to listen to music? 
 
 Ms. Tolokonnikova: You could listen to music that played on the loudspeakers. This is really, really bad-quality Russian pop music, which is unbearable. The only two things the people in this prison region do is have their pigs and cows and farms and also work as guards in prisons. They are like slave masters, and the slave is the prisoner. 
 
 Are any musicians particularly inspiring for you? 
 
 Ms. Tolokonnikova: The Riot Grrrl movement, David Bowie, Iggy Pop. 
 
 Ms. Alyokhina: Syd Barrett. 
 
 What do you think of a pop star like Miley Cyrus? Is she empowering girls, or the opposite? 
 
 Ms. Tolokonnikova: The last time I listened to Miley Cyrus was in prison. I don't think that I am the best person to talk about Miley Cyrus. I really don't have thoughts about her, but if she wants to do some human rights, I will appreciate that. But not in terms of her music. 
 
 You've come to New York to speak at Frieze. What artists inspire you? 
 
 Ms. Alyokhina: Ai Weiwei. 
 
 Ms. Tolokonnikova: Banksy, of course. Do you know Rémi Gaillard, a French action artist? He does a sort of live-style protest, a bit anti-establishment, very satirical and very accurate. 
 
 You were on Stephen Colbert's show last winter. 
 
 Ms. Alyokhina: Stephen Colbert is a persona that doesn't really exist in Russia, and that Russia really needs. This was the first show we did in America, and after that we started to watch him regularly. 
 
 Ms. Tolokonnikova: We know he's not sincere, so it's very similar to what we do from time to time. In the '90s, we never had any official portraits in government offices, and then suddenly in 2003, Putin's portrait appeared everywhere. So two days before Medvedev was inaugurated as president in 2008, we decided to do a forceful change from Putin to Medvedev portraits in official offices. We built a human pyramid inside a police station and people got on top of each other and read ironic poems about policemen. 
 
 Why are you meeting with people from "House of Cards?" 
 
 Ms. Alyokhina: It's important for us to meet people who are doing political cinema in the U.S. because in Russia, it doesn't exist, and we want to know how it happens. 
 
 Ms. Tolokonnikova: It's not a question of what do they want, but what we want from them. And we want to learn how to do a political movie. This is our main agenda right now. 
 
 Do you want to make a movie? 
 
 Ms. Tolokonnikova: We want to do some. We will see. 
 
 When you were in L.A., did film producers tell you they wanted to work with you? 
 
 Ms. Alyokhina: There were some who asked us about a biopic movie, but we're not interested in this movie about ourselves. We're still alive. We want to do something here and now, in the present. 
 
 Ms. Tolokonnikova: For me, it's not a problem. I can't say that I'm against this biopic, but we just have no time right now to collaborate with some people. But if somebody has a great sense of humor and wants to do it, we will be happy about it. Most people see us and our story in very dramatic terms, victims of political regime. We don't want to be victims. 
 
 Ms. Alyokhina: We want to be winners. 
 
 Write to Ellen Gamerman at ellen.gamerman@wsj.com ||||| Russia's defiant Pussy Riot prisoners on Friday painted a picture of an ideal future Russia in which Mikhail Khodorkovsky would replace a “paranoid” Vladimir Putin as Russia’s president, while they launched an attack on the country’s unforgiving prison system. 
 
 In their first public press conference since being released from separate prisons on Monday, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24, and Maria Alyokhina, 25, said that for the foreseeable future they would dedicate themselves to fighting for prison reform in Russia rather than continue the provocative campaign of anti-government modern art performances that saw them jailed in 2012. 
 
 But they said that the new direction did not represent a softening of their views on Vladimir Putin’s regime, insisting that “in Russia, human rights activity is political activity”. 
 
 “Our attitude to Vladimir Putin has not changed. We’d like to do what we said in our last action - we’d like him to go away,” said Ms Tolokonnikova, referring to the “punk prayer” in Moscow’s main cathedral, in which they called on the Virgin Mary to miraculously evict Mr Putin from office. 
 
 It was this performance that led to them being jailed for hooliganism aggravated by religious hatred, in a decision that many saw as having been pushed for by the Orthodox Church hierarchy. 
 
 “Vladimir Putin is a very closed, opaque chekist,” said Ms Tolokonnikova, using the Russian slang for a secret policeman. “He is very much afraid. He builds walls around him that block out reality.” 
 
 “Many of the things he said about Pussy Riot were so far from the truth, but it was clear he really believed them. I think he believes that Western countries are a threat, that it’s a big bad world out there where houses walk on chicken legs and there is a global masonic conspiracy. I don’t want to live in this terrifying fairytale.” 
 
 Asked who she would rather replace the president, Ms Tolokonnikova said: “I’d like to offer Mikhail Borisovich [Khodorkovsky] the job.” “Me too,” added Ms Alyokhina. 
 
 Mikhail Khodorkovsky (Bloomberg) 
 
 Mr Khodorkovsky, the former oil tycoon long considered Russia’s most famous prisoner and an enemy of Mr Putin, was unexpectedly pardoned by the president a week ago. 
 
 He is currently in Berlin, where he has ruled out a career in politics or challenging Mr Putin directly. However, he has expressed determination to work to help other political prisoners, and he and Pussy Riot have exchanged open letters of support following their release. 
 
 But Ms Alyokhina and Ms Tolokonnikova denied that Mr Khodorkovsky, who is rumoured to still have a small fortune squirrelled away in foreign bank accounts, would be funding their NGO. 
 
 “When we suggested working together it was not about financing. Mr Khodorkovsky is important for us as a very strong, a very resistant person. He is an incredible person who endured a much longer prison term than we did,” said Ms Tolokonnikova. “We think that would be very important for advocacy work. If he deems it possible to work with us it would be a great honour for us.” 
 
 While they maintained their staunch opposition to Mr Putin, they extended an olive branch to the Russian Orthodox Church, saying that they believed its charitable work had an important role to play in their campaign to change Russia’s prison culture from one of violence and punishment to one of rehabilitation.
– Two newly released members of Pussy Riot tell the New York Times that they're kicking around the idea of running for political office in Russia. Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, currently visiting the US as part of an international tour, also made clear that they have no intentions of tamping down their outspoken ways. “This is certainly not the time for us to be afraid," says Tolokonnikova. "The situation in Russia has gotten so much worse. And if we couldn’t keep quiet about it then, then we certainly won’t keep quiet about it now." Alyokhina adds that the support they received from around the world made them feel free even while imprisoned. “In light of that, it’s kind of silly to talk about having to go through that a second time as something that would instill fear in us.” The interview is fairly routine stuff, but not-so-routine was their visit to the Colbert Report, where Stephen Colbert "met his quick-witted match," observes Mediaite. Sample response when asked about Vladimir Putin: "We have different ideas about a bright future, and we don't want a shirtless man on a horse leading us" into that future. Watch it here.