AFP "It (the action) was a desperate attempt to change the political system. We had no intention of insulting people. We did not expect our punk appearance would cause offence," said the statement by Tolokonnikova.
"The fact we do not accept guilt in the charges does not mean we are not ready to admit our mistakes. If someone was insulted then I am prepared to accept that we made an ethical mistake," her statement said.
They said the motivation for their action was a protest against the support in elections for Mr Putin by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill which was against the principles of Russia's secular constitution.
Samutsevich added: "The main theme of all our texts was not (Orthodox Christianity) but illegitimacy of the elections".
"The calls (by the Patriarch) to vote for Putin and not go to the protest rallies are clear violations of the principles of a non-religious state."
"I don't understand the ideology of the prosecution," Alekhina said after the prosecution read through its statement. "I don't understand why a conclusion is made about our motives."
The father of Yekaterina Samutsevich, Stanislav, said he had little hope of mercy for his daughter. "Of course they are going to be put in jail. It is a political trial."
In an interview with The Times newspaper released by the government on Monday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called for calm over the ongoing case, but acknowledged that it had "resonance" for the public.
The Khamovnichesky court is the same court that in 2010 saw the second trial and conviction of Putin foe and the former head of the Yukos oil giant Mikhail Khodorkovsky on fraud charges.
To cope with the numbers, the trial has now been moved to the same courtroom as the Yukos trial, meaning that the three Pussy Riot members are sitting in the same defendants' box as Khodorkovsky and his co-accused Platon Lebedev.
In a bid to show transparency, the court started showing the proceedings live in an online broadcast with the footage never showing the faces of the judge or prosecutors.
However at the prosecution's request, the judge will now turn off the internet broadcast, the defence lawyers told journalists as the court adjourned for a break.
Interfax - A Moscow court questioned all nine alleged victims in the Pussy Riot case on Monday and Tuesday, all of them claiming they had been deeply offended and shocked by the scandalous performance of Pussy Riot, a feminist punk rock band, inside a Moscow cathedral in February.
The song performed by three women Pussy Riot members in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was a protest against Vladimir Putin's seeking his third term of presidency.
The Khamovnichesky Court interrogated three cathedral security guards, two candle sellers, two altar servers, the deputy chief electrician and a member of the People's Council movement.
All nine claimed that the Pussy Riot act had inflicted a personal injury on them and had targeted the Orthodox, but none of them wanted any money compensation from the musicians or suggested any other form of punishment for them.
Seven of those questioned said they were not prepared to forgive the accused while two - altar server Vasily Tsyganyuk and security guard Sergey Beloglazov - said they had no hard feelings toward the three young women.