Pussy Riot, Russia

In February 2012, four members of a feminist Russian punk-rock band named Pussy Riot, protesting
against President Vladimir Putins government, walked into the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ
the Savior in Moscow. They wore bright-colored balaclavas and performed a provocative song called
Punk Prayer, with lyrics that called on the Virgin Mary to drive Putin away, and condemned the close
relationship of the church and the Russian government.
Shortly after, three of the women were arrested and detained for months as a 2,800-page indictment
was compiled, accusing them of criminal hooliganism and religious hatred. On 17.08.2012, the three
were convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment, after a trial widely condemned by outside
observers as an attack on free speech. Pussy Riot members face threat of violence in Russian jail.
Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk-rock group based in Moscow. Founded in August 2011, the band
stages provocative performances about Russian political life in unusual and unauthorized locations,
such as Lobnoye Mesto in Red Square, on top of a trolleybus, or on a scaffold in the Moscow Metro.
Warning from Pussy Riot lawyer
A lawyer for Pussy Riot has warned that three members of the feminist punk band sentenced to jail
last week could face violence and discrimination because of the intense state campaign against them.
For half a year, state-run television has built up a very negative image of them that theyre
blasphemers, heretics, said Nikolai Polozov, a member of the womens defence team. The only
source of information in prisons is state-run TV.
We have a serious basis to think they can be faced with physical harm, moral pressure and even
violence.
Maria Alyokhina, 24, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, were found guilty
last week of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for February 2012 performance in Moscows
official cathedral criticising Vladimir Putin.
Polozov said he would appeal against their sentence two years in a minimum security prison colony
within two weeks.
Alyokhina has already protested against the bands treatment. In a letter handed to Polozov from the
detention centre in southern Moscow where they have spent the past five months, she described how
prison officials and special forces troops had treated them harshly. I found this strange, usually
theyre not so rude with us, so that means theyve got an order, she wrote. I want to believe that all
will end well, but everything thats happening points to it being otherwise.

Russian opposition activists remain enraged by the sentencing. On 21.08.2012, hackers attacked the
site of the Khamovnichesky court, which hosted the trial against the three women, peppering it with
slogans decrying Russias justice system. The hackers also defaced the sites main page with a video
by Azis, a gay Bulgarian singer.
As well as exposing the Kremlins crackdown on dissent, the trial has also shone a spotlight on its
increasingly conservative policies, encouraged by the Russian Orthodox church, including repressive
anti-gay laws.
The trial has prompted criticism from some of Putins closest allies. Yet many government supporters
continue to promote the theory that Pussy Riot was part of a western plot to weaken Russia.
It seems that the planned and well-orchestrated provocation called Pussy Riot succeeded, Vladimir
Yakunin, the Kremlin-connected head of Russian Railways and a high-profile supporter of the Orthodox
church, wrote this week. The group, he said, was organised in response to growing Orthodox unity.
As a person, I feel sorry for these young women and its unfortunate that our law enforcement
system did not find those who directed this performance, financed it and are now trying to get political
dividends from it.
Police are searching for other members of Pussy Riot who they believe were involved in the February
performance of an anti-Putin punk prayer at Moscows Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
Court site hacked
A slogan denouncing President Vladimir Putin was posted on the site as was an appeal for the trios
release along with a video clip of one of the bands latest anti-Putin songs and a clip by Bulgarian
singer Azis, local media reported.
The hack attack claimed by AnonymousRussia, which says it is affiliated with hacking activist group
Anonymous comes amid a chorus of criticism of the sentences, which Western governments and
singers said were disproportionate and opponents of Putin called part of a crackdown on dissent.
A screenshot posted by opposition activist Ilya Yashin on Twitter showed the courts web page topped
by an inscription reading: Putins thieving gang is plundering our country! Wake up, comrades!
Another caption called for the release of the bands jailed members.
Criticism
The United States and the European Union called the sentences disproportionate and Washington has
urged Russian authorities to review the case.

Human rights groups and musicians including Madonna and Paul McCartney have also criticised the
trial, but opinion polls indicate few Russians sympathise with Pussy Riot and support from local
musicians has been muted.
Russia police said they were searching for other members of Pussy Riot and Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov dismissed Western criticism of the sentences, saying people should not go into hysterics
about the case.
Also, democracy activist and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov was called in for police
questioning over claims he bit an officer on the hand when he was detained at a protest in support of
Pussy Riot. Mr Kasparov has called the accusation drivel.
Voina connection
The connection between Pussy Riot and the political performance art group Voina has been highlighted
by some of the groups critics and has been called an aggravating moral circumstance in the eyes of
the conservative public (which constitutes about 60 per cent of Russians).
Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich participated in some Voina
performances. Tolokonnikova, while pregnant, was part of a performance in which couples were filmed
having sex in the Biology Museum in Moscow in 2008 which has been called an orgy by the media.
Voina (Russian: = War) is a Russian street-art group known for their provocative and politically
charged works of performance art. The group has had more than sixty members, including former and
current students of the Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography, Moscow State University, and Tartu
University. However, the group does not cooperate with state or private institutions, and is not
supported by any Russian curators or gallerists.
The activities of Voina have ranged from street protests, symbolic pranks in public places, and
performance-art happenings, to vandalism and destruction of public property.