While high-profile public figures, world famous celebrities and western governments have expressed their support for Pussy Riot, on Wednesday French singer Mireille Mathieu went the opposite direction and criticized the three women.

In an interview published on the website of a Russian Channel, the French singer, who is considered as the successor to Édith Piaf, said the three young women had committed an act of sacrilege by organizing a protest in a church.

"A church is no place to stage a protest. If people want to demonstrate there are other ways to do it. A church is a restful place for contemplation and it is an act of sacrilege to demonstrate like the Pussy Riot did," Mireille Mathieu said on Russian television.

The three members of Pussy Riot were handed two-year jail sentences last month for mounting a protest against president Vladimir Putin inside Moscow's main Orthodox cathedral.

The Pussy Riot verdict garnered a lot of international attention and was strongly criticized by European nations, the United States, as well as some celebrities.

Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief and the United Stated both described the two-year sentences as "disproportionate".