On one hand, people have right to speak freely. On the other hand, that speech should not be unreasonably offensive to other people. Is it OK to climb onto a soap box on a street corner and say that you are against a politician? Certainly. Is it OK to hack into the scoreboard during a major football game and do the same? Probably not. Is it OK to take people hostage on board of four airplanes and similarly mention a dislike of some government? Certainly not.
The borderline that separates reasonable and unreasonable depends on importance of the message. In this case those girls haven't said anything that they haven't said before. They started with small things, but in a democracy (let's assume for the moment that one is present in Russia) they should be left alone, unmolested by the police. And that's what happened - most of their actions were ignored. So they decided to up the ante and go for the shock value. Hence the sex act with a frozen chicken (it's on Google if anyone is curious.) When that gathered no notice they went for desecration of a church, in presence of worshipers and clergy. Suppose they were not arrested then. What would they do next? Imagination runs amok here. Would they make an orgy in a kindergarten? Would they go for a real terrorist act? Who knows. But if past actions are any indications, these girls have no brakes - or brains.
Two years is a lot of time for an act of hooliganism. But the point of the sentence is to tell all budding punks that people of Russia do not want to be punked. Desecration of an altar is just a specific incident. But there was a photo on FR and elsewhere today how a similar anarchist group, FEMEN, that operates in Ukraine, used a chainsaw to fell a tall wooden crucifix for a cause that they considered worthy. The cause of the people who purchased and installed the cross was not a concern, of course. These punks never think about others - they always think only about themselves. They are anarchists and attention whseekers, plain and simple. They are not "for" anything - they are against everything because that's the only message they have.
Here is what a Ukrainian said about this act:
"Today's act of vandalism against the memory of victims of political repression showed that nonhumans have crossed the line and set themselves against the whole Ukrainian community, as almost every Ukrainian family was repressed by the communist regime"
If this "lady" who cut the cross down is found she may be wishing for just two years in prison. People, for some strange reason, do not like it when an antisocial creature spits in their faces.
Antisocial behavior is far from being unique to Russia. The USA is very familiar with this - from uncontrolled and uncontrollable children to loose teenagers and school students who attack teachers, to adults who feel perfectly comfortable wearing pants on their ankles. None of that is good behavior, but in the USA it's all but illegal to try to stop it. As result the society is sliding down into anarchy. That's not the first time in history when that happened. Last decades of Roman Empire were also marked by a society where everything was permitted and nobody cared one way or the other. Where is that boundary when the personal freedom of expression collides with the need of the society to stay civilized? Monkeys do not know that boundary; as result they are flinging their own wastes at other monkeys, considering it perfectly natural. Do we want to go that low?
Two years in an AB resistant tuberculosis prison camp with some nasty tatted Olgas will teach these girls the meaning of Pussy Riot!
