Posted on 08/22/2012 4:31:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
First off, they're nowhere near pretty enough to claim the "not guilty by reason of good looks" nonsense that occasionally shows up here.
Second ... that doesn't seem to work in Russia at all.
That Christ the Savior Cathedral had become a significant symbol in the political strategy of the authorities was clear to many thinking people when Vladimir Putins former [KGB] colleague Kirill Gundyayev took over as leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. After this happened, Christ the Savior Cathedral began to be openly used as a flashy backdrop for the politics of the security forces, which are the main source of political power in Russia.
Sounds like these girls have a bit more acumen than the average OWS member did. What would the Tea Party do if the National Cathedral turned out to be nothing but a branch of Acorn.
Thank you buckhead!
The author of the article is clueless. Putin talking points repeated in the American press as fact.
Agreed.
Putin is destroying the last vestiges of real democracy, free markets and liberty in a country that has suffered for centuries under repressive regimes.
I do not like the group’s tactics but I am not sure they have any other real options. They have effectively exposed the brutality of the Putin government that no other freedom loving dissidents have so far been able to achieve. The Putin government is corrupt, intolerant, petty and
excessively brutal.
Whether or not you like these ladies’ tactics they should be commended for their bravery and willingness to confront tyranny and have suffered greatly in the process.
Their actions have had an impact. Now the whole world cannot continue to pretend Russia is freedom loving, open society that cherishes and protects individual rights and freedom. The mask of a civilized society has been ripped off and exposed the pettiness of this brutal, petty, corrupt and evil regime.
The girls are heroes.
Well said.
I’ll support Pussy Riot long before I support the murderous dictator Putin.
he protesters chose the shallowest form of subversion possible, their rationale apparently being that by doing a lewd can-can-girl number in a church, they can successfully overturn the government of a G8 country. That’s some serious stoner logic.
&&&&
Excellent observation. Sums up the entire OWS mindset, as well.
I saw a brief clip of these trollops at their hearing, and I noticed that one of them was wearing a big smirk. Given what I have read about Russian prisons, I would like to see how much smirking she is doing in a few weeks.
Well said, as usual.
By Jove, I think you've got it. More than a year is for felonies only, at least here. The charge didn't fit very well the crime.
Arg!! My eyes, blinded by the sight!
NOT WANT!!!!!!!!!
bflr
Well said, Buckhead, and good to see you again.
Maybe Garry Kasparov is respectable enough for the skeptics here?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444375104577595811340186308.html?KEYWORDS=riot
The only surprise to come out of Friday’s guilty verdict in the trial here of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot was how many people acted surprised. Three young women were sentenced to two years in prison for the prank of singing an anti-Putin “prayer” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Their jailing was the next logical step for Vladimir Putin’s steady crackdown on “acts against the social order,” the Kremlin’s expansive term for any public display of resistance.
In the 100 days since Mr. Putin’s re-election as president, severe new laws against public protest have been passed and the homes of opposition leaders have been raided. These are not the actions of a regime prepared to grant leniency to anyone who offends Mr. Putin’s latest ally, the Orthodox Church and its patriarch.
Unfortunately, I was not there to hear the judge’s decision, which she took hours to read. The crowds outside the court building made entry nearly impossible, so I stood in a doorway and took questions from journalists. Suddenly, I was dragged away by a group of policein fact carried away with one policeman on each arm and leg.
The men refused to tell me why I was being arrested and shoved me into a police van. When I got up to again ask why I had been detained, things turned violent. I was restrained, choked and struck several times by a group of officers before being driven to the police station with dozens of other protesters. After several hours I was released, but not before they told me I was being criminally investigated for assaulting a police officer who claimed I had bitten him.
It would be easy to laugh at such a bizarre charge when there are already so many videos and photos of the police assaulting me. But in a country where you can be imprisoned for two years for singing a song, laughter does not come easily. My bruises will heal long before the members of Pussy Riot are free to see their young children again. In the past, Mr. Putin’s critics and enemies have been jailed on a wide variety of spurious criminal charges, from fraud to terrorism.
But now the masks are off. Unlikely as it may be, the three members of a punk band have become our first true political prisoners.
[more at link, worth a click]
you do — it’s disrespect to the Church and is against the law in Russia.
Bullcrap. The Russian Orthodox Church has climbed into bed with Putin. This was a political protest, and Putin is cracking down hard on dissent.
It is truly amazing to see so many FReepers who either fail to see what is at stake here, or are enamored to be Putin apologists.
Whether they have climbed in or not is besides the point. There has been a law for years on a person getting jailed if they did such a thing in a Church.
Two years for simple trespass.
If you can't see that Putin is using this to crack down on dissent, well, maybe you need to read up on some Orwell or Solzhenitsyn.
I'm sure there were also laws against dumping tea into a harbor to protest taxation without representation.
However Pussy Riot is not a legitimate opposition, they're just anarchists
and, the law which remember has existed for some years is the law. This was not "simple trepass" as you state but disrespect for the Orthodox Church.
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