On the day of the verdict in the Pussy Riot trial, Russian embassies worldwide are seeing demonstrations in support of the incriminated punk band members. The Red Army Monument in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, has joined in: a picture of it with some of the soldiers wearing Pussy Riot-styled hats has spread on social networks this morning. The Macedonian outlet think.mk publishes a short post [mk] comparing this political art expression with the previous one, when the soldiers were painted as comics characters.
Even some of Putin's supporters are aghast at the penal term handed out to the feminist punks. Amid a global storm of protest, signs have emerged that they might be released early – but a deep national rift remains
Demonstrators at the Russian embassy in London. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
A storm of criticism broke in Russia following the harsh two-year prison sentences given to three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot for protesting against the government in a Moscow cathedral. Those openly critical of the jail terms included some who are close to Vladimir Putin and others with strong links to the church, increasing pressure on the authorities to treat the trio more leniently.
Three members of the punk collective – Maria Alyokhina, 24, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22 – were sentenced to serve two years in a penal colony on Friday after being found guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred". A Moscow judge rejected the defence's argument that the band's performance of an anti-Putin "punk prayer" was a form of political protest and ruled that it was motivated by hatred for Russian Orthodoxy.
Alexey Kudrin, a former finance minister who remains a close ally of Putin, said: "The verdict in the case against the Pussy Riot punk band isn't only a fact in the lives of three young women; it is also yet another blow to the justice system and, above all, Russian citizens' belief in it."
Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, another member of the country's minority liberal elite, also attacked the verdict, calling it a "strategic error that terribly damages the authority of the justice system". He voiced the widespread belief that the court case was politically orchestrated: "We don't know who took the final decision – the Kremlin? The patriarch? Probably not the court itself."
Opposition activists have accused Putin of orchestrating the campaign against Pussy Riot. The trio were arrested after a brief performance in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour of a song calling for the Virgin Mary to "chase Putin out". The band formed in response to Putin's decision to return to the presidency, and have gone from being a radical fringe group to becoming the figureheads of a protest movement numbering tens of thousands.
The case against Pussy Riot was widely seen as serving as a warning to other protesters, as well as a means of appealing to Putin's deeply conservative base. A poll released on Friday by the Levada Centre, an independent pollster, found that 44% of Russians believed the case against the band was conducted in a just manner. Most of those polled also believed the case was initiated by groups linked to the Russian Orthodox church.
In a sign that the women might be released early in a bid to ease tensions and boost Russia's international image, the church released a statement late on Friday calling on the authorities to show mercy. "Without putting the correctness of the court's decision into any doubt, we call on the state authorities to show mercy to the convicts, within the framework of the law, in the hope that they will refrain from repeating blasphemous actions," the statement said.
Andrei Isayev, a high-ranking member of the ruling United Russia party, also spoke out against the verdict. "The verdict is harsh. The president still might take a decision. But nonetheless this verdict which, probably, will be taken negatively by some of our liberal intelligentsia, will be taken as just by a significant number of people."
Lawyers for the Pussy Riot trio have said they will appeal. A request for a pardon would require an admission of guilt, which the women have said they will not give.
Even some of Putin's loudest supporters called the verdict a mistake. Tina Kandelaki, a prominent media personality and Putin cheerleader, called the verdict and sentence "information suicide" and "wrong at its very roots".
"For some reason, from the very beginning, Putin's advisers gave the president a new 'Khodorkovsky'," she said, referring to jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose arrest in 2003 signalled Putin's willingness to jail political critics, say critics.
"The millions of dollars of taxpayer money spent in the last few years on fixing the image of our country abroad have been thrown to the wind," she said. "Our image in the eyes of the world is getting closer to a medieval dictatorship, although in reality we are not that."
The case has deepened the rift that emerged in Russian society following the unexpected appearance of a mass protest movement against Putin's return to the presidency. Some in the opposition movement gave dire predictions of what lay ahead.
Referring to the performance art collective Voina ("War"), from which Pussy Riot emerged, opposition Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov tweeted after the verdict: "So, there was the art group War, and now there will be real war. Idiots."
Condemnation also came from western capitals and human rights groups. The US state department said it was concerned by the ruling and urged the Kremlin to review the case. Former foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind said the verdict had done "real damage" to Russia's image internationally. "It creates an image of a neanderthal country which can imprison young people for indulging in silly pranks. It is a huge own goal. Putin will have alienated a large amount of Russian youth in the process."
Amnesty International called the verdict a "travesty". "[It] shows that the Russian authorities will stop at no end to suppress dissent and stifle civil society," Michelle Ringuette, of Amnesty, said in a statement. "Each step in the case has been an affront to human rights." Guardian
That's a horrific bit of news, that artists can't express without risking imprisonment. Here in the US protesters get arrested for protesting against ecological perpetrators or for videotaping police.
The arts have always been one arena where expression of ideas was permitted. Russia's shameful attack against musicians will be felt throughout the world-- hopefully with repercussions that lead to Russia reversing the decision, which CAN be appealed.
This is not the first or last time this has happened to musicians.
In the end, neither Madonna’s prayer nor Paul McCartney’s letter to President Putin was any help. On Friday, the trio of Russian feminist punk performance artists known as Pussy Riot were sentenced by a Moscow court to two years in prison. Members of the all-girl punk band "Pussy Riot" Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (right), Maria Alyokhina (left) and Yekaterina Samutsevich sit in a glass-walled cage after being sentenced in Moscow on Agust 17, 2012. (AFP / Getty Images)
And Maria Alekhina, Ekaterina Samutsevich, and Nadezhda Tolokonninkova’s crime—a 1-1/2-minute “punk prayer” performed at the holiest place in the Russian Orthodox Church asking the Virgin Mary to expel Putin from the Kremlin—wasn’t answered with a miracle. Putin is still in power, though sending the young women to prison has tainted his reputation further and brought Pussy Riot worldwide fame.
As the guilty verdict was read, crowds of protesters filled the Moscow streets near the court chanting “Free Pussy Riot!” Colorful balaclavas appeared across the city center on monuments to Lomonosov, Pushkin, and his wife Goncharova, while in London a hail of stones pinged against the Russian Embassy building.
“By putting modern art performers behind bars, Putin set the parameters for limiting freedom of expression and signaled a powerful crackdown on civil society,” said Human Rights Watch’s Rachel Denber, in Moscow observing the case, as she watched police detain dozens of protesters outside the courthouse.
Hailed in the West as “sheroes” for braving a repressive society, Pussy Riot has infuriated the Kremlin for months. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin called Madonna “a slut” for supporting the punk band, and Chechen President and Ramzan Kadyrov, who has said he believes Putin was sent to Russia by God, compared the girls to “pigs.”
But there is little doubt the group’s church stunt was provocative and deeply offensive to Russian believers. Senior clerics in the church and members of Putin’s government have hinted that the women could not have thought up the act on their own and suggest a sinister plot involving foreign governments and the media. “Putin has been under colossal pressure from a well-planned, anti-Russian campaign focused on discrediting the institution of the Russian church and weakening the Russian people,” said Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political expert and deputy rector of Plekhanov University.
The women smiled as they heard the words “guilty” and “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.”
Inside the courtroom, the three women who challenged Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church looked hardly taller than 5 feet and appeared pale and exhausted after five months behind bars. They smiled as they heard the words “guilty” and “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” Alekhina, Samutsevich, and Tolokonninkova had said earlier in court that they believe in God but hate the idea of Russian Patriarch Kirill’s endorsing Putin’s candidacy earlier this year.
In the three months since he returned to the presidency, Putin has directed at least 19 political cases to the Russian courts and allowed the parliament to toughen laws on street protesters, foreign-funded NGOs, and criminal libel against journalists, a bill that even his political ally Dmitry Medvedev once vetoed. Pussy Riot had feared the worst. “Virgin Mary save us from Putin!” is a crucial line in one of their songs. Says Yevgenia Rakina, another member of the band: “I am convinced that Putin is afraid the Virgin Mary will actually take his power away from him.”
