Russia Frees One Punk Rocker, Keeps Two in Jail

[struggle4progress]

... The three women were arrested in February after they slipped into Russia’s largest Orthodox cathedral and performed a lightning, one-minute “punk prayer” imploring the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Vladimir Putin.

Several days later, Putin won the presidential election - and a six-year term. Before the election, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill had called Putin’s 12 years ruling Russia “a miracle of God." ...

“Our act was political, not religious,” she said. “For that reason, there was no crime.” She and the other two musicians said they were protesting the gradual merging of church and state in Russia.

But her lawyer came up with a more persuasive argument. She said that cathedral guards had stopped Samutsevich before she had time to get her guitar out of its case ...

http://www.voanews.com/content/russian-court-releases-pussy-riot-member/1523761.html

[rug]

1. Yekaterina Samutsevich made an interesting argument.

A political act is not a religious act is better than her lawyers'. A foiled attempt to commit a crime still carries criminal liability while a noncriminal act carries none.