Vol. 76/No. 37      October 15, 2012

Maria Alyokhina, 24, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, were arrested March 3. On Aug. 17 they were found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and sentenced to two years in jail. This was after performing a “punk prayer” in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ in Moscow Feb. 21, asking the Virgin Mary “to drive [President Vladimir] Putin away.” The three are now in prison, kept in separate cells.

Their appeal hearing set for Oct. 1 was postponed at the request of Samutsevich. She told the court she no longer wanted to be represented by the team of lawyers she has had until now and needed time to get new representation. The date for the hearing is now set for Oct. 10.

The November issue of GQ magazine features interviews with Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina. The London Guardian ran an interview with Samutsevich Aug. 27. In both cases the questions were slipped in with their lawyers. Samutsevich’s answers to GQ were confiscated.

Samutsevich says that jail time doesn’t scare them. “The evil plan of our authorities, to jail us so as to break us and sour us, has already failed miserably.”

Asked what is “more useful for the progressive movement in Russia right now: Pussy Riot at large or Pussy Riot in jail?” Alyokhina answered, “At large, of course.” But then she continues, “We couldn’t even imagine that the authorities would be so dumb that they would actually legitimize our influence by arresting us. Sure, they tried to intimidate us constantly. But unlike Putin, we’re not chickenshit.”

Before the church incident that got them arrested Pussy Riot performed at many other venues, including one near the Kremlin, where they played a song titled “Riot in Russia—Putin Is Chickenshit.”

“The church performance was a perfect opportunity for Putin’s apparatchiks to claim that our motives were religious intolerance and not political protest,” Tolokonnikova explains in her interview. “This way our persecution could be framed as a righteous burning of blasphemers, as opposed to just stifling free speech.”

In attempts to close down political space and freedom of expression, Putin’s government has signed “defamation” laws and increased fines for participation in “unsanctioned” demonstrations.

A blasphemy bill was introduced Sept. 26 by deputies from the four parties in the Russian parliament, the Duma, proposing a fine of $9,600 or a three-year jail sentence for “insulting the religious feelings of others.”  
 
 
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