Judge Marina Syrova sentenced them to two years in jail, a year less than the prosecution asked for.
The three women have been jailed since March after the band put on a brief guerrilla performance, a so-called punk prayer entreating the Virgin Mary to protect Russia from Vladimir Putin, who at the time was on the verge of winning a new term as Russian president.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, said they were protesting against close ties between Putin and the Russian Orthodox church and did not intend to offend believers.
Wearing handcuffs, they stood in silence in a glass courtroom cage and at times smiled and laughed to each other as the judge read out the verdict. They lifted their cuffed hands in salute to acknowledge supporters after the sentencing and smiled to each other.
After the judge finished reading the sentence, three hours after she began her verdict, those in the room shouted “Shame!,” BBC Russian Service reported.
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Syrova said Friday that the action was carefully planned and every step thought out in advance, the BBC Russia reported.
The defendants “committed an act of hooliganism ... based on motives of religious hatred and enmity,” the judge told the Moscow court as the defendants sat in a courtroom cage.
The women, two of whom have young children, were charged with hooliganism connected to religious hatred. But the case is widely seen as a warning that authorities will tolerate opposition only under tightly controlled conditions.
The women formed the band to commit unlawful acts, the judge said in her verdict.
“The content of the songs performed by the member punk band Pussy Riot, was blasphemous from the perspective of the Orthodox Church,” she said.
In her closing statement, Tolokonnikova had told the court: “It makes you want to weep to see how the methods of the medieval inquisition are brought out by the law-enforcement and judicial system of the Russian Federation.”
Their lawyer, Mark Feygin, had tweeted before the verdict: “Well, they'll be convicted. No use in harboring any illusions. However, no one is afraid.”
The case has attracted international attention as an emblem of Russia’s intolerance of dissent.
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Protests timed to just before the verdict or soon afterward are planned in more than three dozen cities worldwide.
A “couple of thousand” people were outside the Moscow courthouse chanting “Freedom to Political Prisoners” from early morning.
Prosecutors had asked for three-year sentences, down from the possible seven-year maximum and Putin himself said he hoped the sentencing is not “too severe.”
Celebrities including Paul McCartney, Madonna and Bjork have called for them to be freed, and protests are planned around the world Friday.
The women “hope for an acquittal but they are ready to continue to fight,” defence lawyer Nikolai Polozov said outside the court building, where there was a heavy police presence
Acquittal appeared unlikely. But even if the women are sentenced only to time already served, the case has already strongly clouded Russia’s esteem overseas and stoked the resentment of opposition partisans who have turned out in a series of massive rallies since last winter.
The case comes in the wake of several recently passed laws cracking down on opposition, including one that raised the fine for taking part in an unauthorized demonstrations by 150 times to 300,000 rubles (about $9,000).
Another measure requires non-government organizations that both engage in vaguely defined political activity and receive funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents.”
With files from The Associated Press
Pussy Riot: Support emerges around the world
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