Friday, August 17, 2012

NEWS: Pussy Riot VERDICT; Group Receives International Support but Not Russian


Pussy Riot
Today, the three jailed members of Russia’s Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years imprisonment for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. Judge Marina Syrova spent three hours reading the verdict,  while the three convicted women stood in a glass cage in the courtroom, giggling. In the verdict, the Judge stated, “The girls' actions were sacrilegious, blasphemous and broke the church's rules.”

Many see the verdict as a blow to freedoms of speech, including US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, who said: "We urge Russian authorities to review this case and ensure that the right to freedom of expression is upheld."

In February of this year, Pussy Riot held a flash performance at the altar in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral calling on the Virgin Mary to throw out Vladimir Putin, Russia’s former president (2000-2008) and presidential candidate for the new 2012 term. The staging was to protest the support the head of the Russian Orthodox Church was giving Putin. Seven members of Pussy Riot were arrested, three of which remained in custody to eventually receive the two year sentence for disrupting civil order. Putin was voted back into presidency two weeks after Pussy Riot’s stunt in the Cathedral and took office May 7.

Alexei Navalny, one of the leaders to organize the Cathedral event, told reporters outside the courthouse after the verdict was served, “They are in jail because it is Putin's personal revenge. This verdict was written by Vladimir Putin.” During Putin’s new term, Parliament has already rushed through laws that tighten controls on the internet, increase fines for protestors, and impose stricter rules on defamation.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova
On Thursday, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of the detained women, stated that she was “not bitter about being in jail…Politically, I’m furious…Our imprisonment serves as a clear and unambiguous sign that freedom is being taken away from the entire country.”

Her husband, Pyotr Verzilov said, “Russia's image was quite scary even before [this]. What happened now is a clear sign that Russia is moving towards becoming more like China or North Korea.”

Pussy Riot has received lots of support of numerous international music stars, including Sting, Paul McCartney, and Madonna. Earlier this year, Madonna performed in Moscow with "PUSSY RIOT" painted on her back. Protests were held around the world in cities, such as New York, Paris, Sydney, and London, in support of the group's free speech. Worldwide protests consisted of, in Kiev, "a bare-chested feminist activist [taking] a chainsaw to a wooden cross bearing a figure of Christ, while in Bulgaria, sympathizers put Pussy Riot-style masks on statues at a Soviet Army monument."

Outside the courthouse, protestors supporting Pussy Riot rallied together, including former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, who was arrested. Others outside the courthouse did not express support for the group, though. One report claims, "An opinion poll of Russians released by the independent Levada research group on Friday showed only 6 percent had sympathy with the women, 51 percent said they found nothing good about them or felt irritation or hostility, and the rest were unable to say or were indifferent."

MY OPINION

I'm all for free speech, and it seems some questionable gameplay is moving with the restrictions Parliament has been instituting. However, to perform a protest at the altar in a well-known cathedral cries more to blaspheme the religious symbols of the church than just to make a political statement. Personally, I am not offended by them doing it there, but I can see how it is disrespectful. If they wished to also protest a religious leader's support, there are other places in and around the cathedral where their message could have been better received, and they could still accomplish the mission of their protest, while not unintentionally degradating the religion itself.


How do you feel about Pussy Riot and the verdict?

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