Russians join in call for Pussy Riot trio's release

[n2doc]

Miriam Elder, Moscow
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 30 June 2012 07.21 EDT

Pussy Riot try to perform at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow. Photograph: Sergey Ponomarev/AP

Artists and musicians around the world have called for their release. Now, nearly four months after three women were arrested for performing a protest anthem inside Moscow's most important Orthodox church, Christ the Saviour cathedral, a growing number of Russians are joining calls for their freedom.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Ekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alehina – all members of the anarchic Pussy Riot punk band – have been in prison since March, held on charges of hooliganism which could eventually mean a seven-year sentence. Many Muscovites were happy enough to see a tough response to the band's irreverent act of rebellion, which was aimed at President Vladimir Putin. But with no trial date set, no signs that they will be released and opposition to Putin spreading, support for the trio has grown, even among those who at first condemned them.

"Their actions insulted me, because I'm religious," said Alexander Ivanov, a popular musician. "It's not what they said, it's where they did it. I was offended – but for them to get seven years in jail for an unsuccessful experiment, that's going too far."

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/30/support-pussy-riot-trio

[Xipe Totec]

1. Nadezhda - Russian for hope. nt

[MADem]

2. Well, that's rather a problematic name on this message board!

I won't even repeat a Mrs. Slocumbe joke, never mind repeat the provocative name of that band for fear someone will take it the wrong way.

That said, I had never heard of them but now I know that they "....shot to notoriety inside Russia with their flash performances of anti-Putin punk songs, accompanied by a revolutionary look of bright balaclavas and stockings. A February performance inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, dubbed Punk Prayer, led to their arrest. The anti-government lyrics, delivered in the heart of official Orthodox Christianity, shocked the nation."

[n2doc]

3. Well, we could be talking about cats n/t

[MADem]

4. That's what Mrs. Slocumbe meant, but I still am leery about going there.

I always thought the double entendres on that show were hilarious, but I guess not everyone enjoys that sort of thing.