Free Pussy Riot

[Sam Lord]

Three Russian feminist rockers rejected charges of hooliganism for performing a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main cathedral against Vladimir Putin's return as president as a trial against them opened in earnest on Monday. The charges could carry a punishment of up to seven years in prison.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2...punk-band.html

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALS92big4TY"]Pussy Riot-Punk Prayer.mp4 - YouTube[/ame]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Tax4wFFBSLo

[riposte]

They're a bit young to be in the CIA.

[Sam Lord]

They're a bit young to be in the CIA.

Are only people in the CIA opposed to Putin? No ordinary Russians?

[riposte]

Are only people in the CIA opposed to Putin? No ordinary Russians?

Maybe three of four.

[Baron von Biffo]

...with every bottle of Smirnoff.

[TotalMayhem]

Oh... that's what this is all about.

[bernadette]

Dare anyone say that its indicitive of how much Russia has not changed that the opposition there is ruthlessly squashed. It has taken the worst of capitalism and made it its own. It always did of course but now its in your face.

[riposte]

Dare anyone say that its indicitive of how much Russia has not changed that the opposition there is ruthlessly squashed. It has taken the worst of capitalism and made it its own. It always did of course but now its in your face.

Russia has been subjected to malign propaganda since Marx was paid to criticise the Tsars because they would not allow the central banks to enter Russia. It doesn't matter what kind of government there is in Russia ...... Russia will always be maligned by the western press.

[bernadette]

Russia has been subjected to malign propaganda since Marx was paid to criticise the Tsars because they would not allow the central banks to enter Russia. It doesn't matter what kind of government there is in Russia ...... Russia will always be maligned by the western press.

Maybe but do successive Russian governments have to make it easy for them. The western media are not telling lies.

[riposte]

The western media are not telling lies.

lol !!

[bernadette]

lol !!

Look I know the western media do lie but when it comes to Russia there is not much need. Elections are rigged, trials are rigged and corruption is rife.

The Russians have never had a democratic government, and they haven't got one now.

[Andrew49]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he did not favour a tough punishment in the trial of an all-girl punk band which performed a song against his rule in Moscow's biggest church.

"There is nothing good in what they did, nevertheless, I do not think that they should be judged too severely for this."

Source

Wha? Use the case as an warning example to others!

[fluffybiscuits]

Its irking to see a man who has ruled a country that is repsonsible for human rights abuses to get some support on this site. Is this because such a man such as Putin is the antithesis to the ruling class? Hate to tell people but this man is very much a part of it. The latest being the propganda to reinforce a macho image by going to see the Judo in the Olympics and then congratulating the winner,.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/0...8J2PPA20120802

It was Russian President Putin who staged one of the day's most emphatic victory celebrations, leaping to his feet with both fists aloft when his countryman Tagir Khaibulaev defeated a Mongolian opponent to win Russia's third judo gold.

Putin, who cultivates a macho image based partly on his skills on the mat, slapped the victor repeatedly on the back and grabbed his cheeks with both hands.

In buoyant mood, he went on to suggest to Russian news agency Interfax that members of female punk band Pussy Riot, on trial for protesting against him in a Moscow cathedral, should not be judged too harshly.

Pussy Riot are there to undermine the establishment and fight for free speech, Putin is akin to Bush in a lot of ways but both are just two different faces on the same body that is imperialism. Pussy Riot were named prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International recently, being jailed for their political beliefs. Quite irritating to see some people fall over themselves on here to praise Putin, did not think a lot on here would swallow propoganda.

[C. Flower]

Radio Free Europe weighs in behind Pussy Riot, who they say are modelled on a US performance tendency "

http://www.rferl.org/content/pussy-r.../24660925.html

Pussy Riot and "riot grrl" seem to have followed on the track of the women's art group "Gorilla Girls" who exhibited in Ireland a couple of years ago.

Pussy Riot is more a performance art collective than a punk rock band in the classical sense. They emerged out of the underground anarchist art collective Voina -- itself notorious for its outrageous public stunts, most notably painting a giant phallus on a drawbridge in St. Petersburg facing the local FSB headquarters.

The idea for Pussy Riot emerged in the spring of 2011, according to media reports, when female members of Voina began studying the work of the U.S. "riot grrrl" feminist punk movement.

In the autumn of 2011, the group began staging public actions and posting them on YouTube. And just like Voina, "membership'" in the Pussy Riot collective is anonymous and rotating. In interviews, they gives names like "Squirrel" and "Sparrow."

"Membership in Pussy Riot is completely interchangeable," Petr Verzilov, a leading member of Voina and husband of jailed Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, told RFE/RL's Russian Service in a recent interview. "This anonymous status is part of the group's ideological core. A few dozen girls have participated in their five performances."

"Artistic freedom" was a focus of US propoganda strategies in the USSR and Eastern Europe and now against the too-nationalistic and independent Putin.

The US won't be happy until they have a puppet installed.

Via the link - two videos show that their performance in the church was a mime - no sound.

[Andrew49]

Many liberals who sided with the group feel the Orthodox Church's leader, Patriarch Kirill, has overplayed its hand recently. They point to his support for President Putin and refusal to publicly pardon the protesters. But more traditional believers say the Patriarch needs to be given a chance to revive the Church's flagging attendance rates in a mainly Orthodox society. The BBC

Flagging attendance is not going to be helped by this (not very clever) use of Photoshop to 'disappear' a Breguet watch worth of $30,000!!



So what HAS changed in Russia? A religious man wears a $30,000 watch while girl musicians wear locked handcuffs!