The Know-Nothing’s Guide to Pussy Riot, the Realest Punks Alive

[NoNoRehab]

But what they have no right to do is to bring a political performance into the altar of a church without the permission of that church. Clearly they had no such permission, and the Church of Christ Our Savior not being a public square, had every right to object to their uninvited intrusion. Period.

Oh, for fuck's sake. Please stop pretending like the Church of Christ Our Savior is holy. Just because they spent millions to slap gilt and put religious statues in a building doesn't make it sacred. Just slapping the Lord's name on a building doesn't make it holy.

I'll tell you what: when the Russian Orthodox Church stops being partners with the Kremlin in the oppression of the Russian people and stops propping up Vladimir Putin, THEN we can talk about how offensive it is that an anti-Putin protest was staged there. I mean, open your fucking eyes. These women didn't bring politics into the church, the Church is one of the biggest fucking political organizations in Russia. That was the point of their protest.

The lyrics they sang:

The Church’s praise of rotten dictators
The cross-bearer procession of black limousines
A teacher-preacher will meet you at school
Go to class - bring him money!

Patriarch Gundyaev believes in Putin
Bitch, better believe in God instead
The belt of the Virgin can’t replace mass-meetings
Mary, Mother of God, is with us in protest!

[MmeVertigina]

I'm going to voice an opinion that will piss everybody off.
Fuck Pussy Riot.

They had no right to to stage a political protest on religious private property. They were not invited, had no permission, they were not in public place.

What if a group of women showed up at YOUR church uninvited and put on some kind of anti-politician performance at the altar? Would you not be outraged? Trespassing much?

They were wrong, on private property, and it was in extremely bad taste. I have no sympathy for them.

I think 2 years in prison is excessive for this.

Pussyriot could have put on their little performance in the Kropotinskaya Metro perehod across the street, a public place. No one would have paid any attention to them. You would never have heard of Pussyriot.

So they got their attention by violating the sanctity of the Russian Orthodox church.

It comes under the heading of 'there is no such thing as bad publicity'. They got what they were looking for.

This is how you attempt to start a revolution.

[Tati]

Pussyriot could have put on their little performance in the Kropotinskaya Metro perehod across the street, a public place. No one would have paid any attention to them. You would never have heard of Pussyriot.

/facepalm

Exactly the fucking point. What would be the use of a protest no one paid attention to?

So they got their attention by violating the sanctity of the Russian Orthodox church.

So being present in a place and performing music in it = violating its sanctity?

It comes under the heading of 'there is no such thing as bad publicity'. They got what they were looking for.

I'm sure two years in prison is exactly what they were looking for. Surely incarceration is worth a few new fans and some downloads of their music, right?

I guess you'd prefer people do their protesting quietly in the privacy of their own bedrooms. Wouldn't want to be "attention whores," after all. You do realize that in order to bring attention to a cause, one must actually, you know, bring attention to it?

[NoNoRehab]

Pussy Riot isn't doing this for publicity for their group. They've never recorded an album and don't have any music for sale and don't consider themselves musicians. They're not a conventional music group, they're a guerrilla artist group that formed specifically to protest Putin's return to power.

[BBDSP]

I have just been enjoying hearing the folks on NPR saying 'pussy riot.'

[lizzybabe]

Russia is a fucked-up country. They might as well be back under communist rule.

[Jadestone]

I'm of the (probably bizarre) opinion that Pussy Riot's protest was truly Christian in nature and many of the early Russian Orthodox believers would have approved of their actions. The Church's support of Putin and buddying up with government is a very dangerous and wrong thing to do and completely counter to what Jesus would have wanted.

Going into Russian Orthodox history would be long and boring, but I think many believers over the centuries would actually agree that the cathedral was the perfect and most appropriate place to do the protest, because it was like a petition to the Church and although it wasn't worded as a prayer, to me it seems like a prayer. Russian Orthodox practice and history is full of public displays of worship and unusual protests and disagreements.

It's a shame the Patriarch and other leaders didn't move to simply express disapproval of their actions and not allow charges to be filed against the women in the first place. Separating young mothers from their children is an awful thing, and sending anyone to a Russian prison is a black mark against the Patriarch. I had hoped he would be different from his predecessor, who was in league with the KGB. Even if they couldn't stop the legal proceedings, the Church would have done better to practice mercy towards the women.

[witchcurlgirl]

Pussy Riot Members Maria Alyokhina And Nadezhda Tolokonnikova Sent To Remote Russian Prison Camps



MOSCOW, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Two female members of Russian punk group Pussy Riot convicted of protesting against President Vladimir Putin in a cathedral have been sent to prisons far from Moscow despite requesting to serve out their terms in the capital, a lawyer said on Monday.

Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" in August and sentenced to two years in jail, a punishment that many in the West said was too harsh.

Their stunt - bursting into Moscow's main Russian Orthodox Cathedral to urge the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin - infuriated the church and many Russians. But Kremlin critics said their trial was part of a crackdown on dissent orchestrated by Putin, who began a six-year presidential term in May.

The two women lost their appeals on Oct. 10.

The women's lawyers said they had tried to argue that they should be allowed to remain in jail in Moscow, saying it would have permitted them to be closer to their small children. They had also cited health and safety concerns at far-flung penal colonies.

"They have been sent away," one of their lawyers, Mark Feigin, told Reuters, saying he did not know where the women had been dispatched. By law, relatives must be informed once a convict arrives at a prison, but the trip can take days.

One women's prison is about 100 km (60 miles) from Moscow, but most are much further away.

Former collaborators in a street-art group said on Twitter that Tolokonnikova had been sent to Mordovia, about 500 km (300 miles) east of Moscow, and Alyokhina to the Perm region, near the Ural Mountains about 1,100 km (700 miles) east of the capital. That was not confirmed.

The duo had been held in a Moscow detention centre since their arrests in March. Western governments and musicians like Madonna had said their sentences were disproportionate, but Putin voiced support for the sentences, saying the state must protect the feelings of the faithful.

The dominant Russian Orthodox Church has cast their protest as part of a concerted attack against the church and Russian traditions.

A third convicted member of Pussy Riot, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on appeal when a court suspended her sentence after her lawyer argued that she had been pulled away from the cathedral's altar before the protest song began.

Pussy Riot Members Maria Alyokhina And Nadezhda Tolokonnikova Sent To Russian Prison Camps

[sputnik]

yeah i saw that on the bbc this morning. fucking russians.