RANT: Pusski Russki Nonsenski

So the Pussy Riot (sham) trial came to an end today in Moscow, with the punk grrrrl band being handed down sentences of two years with hard labour. This was ordained by the trial judge (a woman, let it be noted) on the grounds of the three women 'inciting hatred' and for their 'religious contempt.'

It's beyond preposterous. It's a shocking indictment of the Russian legal system, not to mention the monstrous walking ego that is Vladimir Putin.

These women are now the conscience of an entire nation.



Yet I am not at all surprised. I was even expecting them to get more time in jail, given that the maximum sentence being bandied around a few days ago was that the charges could carry up to seven years imprisonment. That is what it has become like to live in this hyper-cynical age in which free speech and democracy are under constant and ever-growing assault by governments all over the world.

At a time when global contempt (including mine) against the United States and most of the West just grows and grows and seems to be at an all time high, Russia had a golden opportunity to slap the women with a light fine and proclaim that Russia was a true democracy where free speech is protected and revered - unlike, increasingly, in the West. Instead, Putin paraded around pontificating about them like some paternal gargoyle and a Russian court, no doubt egged on by the Russian government and President Egoski himself, decided to find them guilty and mete out a ridiculous sentence.

A golden opportunity missed, Russia. You have only shown yourself up as the shabby, paper-thin crony democracy that you really are. And played right into the hands of self-righteous, hypocritical Western powers. Tut, tut.

I really feel for these women. The rest of us around the world may vent and be angry today and for a few days yet with their plight, but we shall move on, to live our lives and fight whatever battles we see fit to fight. Yet those three women will face their reality every day, pilloried and driven hard for two years in a Russian prison, which one can have no doubt will be as grim and horrid a place as penally possible.

What a terrible shame. What an outrage. And yet another nail in the coffin that is free speech and democracy in today's world.

A world gone mad. A world in desperate need of every Pussy Rioter possible.

Do you get my point?