A Moscow court on Friday sentenced three members of a female punk group to two years in jail for performing a punk prayer against Russian President Vladimir Putin on the altar of Russia’s main Orthodox Cathedral earlier this year.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. The judge said the women had “crudely undermined social order” and offended the feelings of Orthodox believers.
The three young musicians were practically unknown before they and two other girls, all wearing bright balaclavas, sang “Virgin Mary, Throw Putin Out” in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February, 2012.
The all-female band was formed last year to protest against Mr. Putin’s decision to run for President and they staged their church performance barely two weeks before the election, which saw Mr. Putin reclaim presidency.
Their arrest, six-month detention and trial on criminal charges have brought the fringe punk group global fame. Madonna donned a balaclava during a recent concert in Moscow and displayed “Pussy Riot” written on her bare back. Björk, Yoko Ono, Sting and Sir Paul McCartney were among international superstars, who came out to Pussy Riot’s support. Protests against the trial have been staged in dozens of cities around the world.
The harsh treatment of the punk artists, whose 30-second political prank did not warrant more than an administrative fine, appeared to be part of the Kremlin’s efforts to discredit the new pro-democracy opposition movement.
The trial has helped the Kremlin to consolidate the support of the conservative electorate in the provinces and set it against the minority urban protesters. A recent poll found that a majority of Russians thought that the punk group deserved being prosecuted.
Experts said this was largely the result of propaganda in state-controlled media, which portrayed the Pussy Riot as immoral freaks who are out to desecrate the Orthodox Church and insult millions of Russian believers.
The church, which has forged close links with the state in Russia, played up to authorities, accusing the women of “blasphemous” behaviour and calling for “divine retribution.”
However, the trial proved a huge overkill, which boomeranged against the Kremlin. It became a rallying point for Russia’s nascent political anti-Putin opposition, as it struggles to get organised and to revitalise mass protests in the coming autumn after the summer lull.
