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?
It couldn't be said better than the UK chapter of Amnesty International, courtesy of a link at www.valeriepalmer.wordpress.com:
Links to the US or UK Amnesty International website allow one to take part in an online petition in support of the Russian female punk band.
For those of us sitting back in the comfort of our homes and our cushy little lives, these Russian women deserve our online support at the very least. It's not much, but it's something. In this Internet age, digital solidarity is the most many of us can do at times.
It's very simple: FREE PUSSY RIOT!
The trial of the punk feminist girl group Pussy Riot continues in Moscow. Three of the punk group's members (Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samutsevitch) are facing criminal charges due to taking part in anti-Putin protest at Russia's largest and most well-known Russian Orthodox cathedral, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
The protest took the form of a punk skit at the altar of the said cathedral, in which they sang and danced and, according to Wikipedia, "In the song, the group asked the “Theotokos” (Mother of God, i.e. the Virgin Mary) (Bogoroditsa in Russian) to 'chase Putin away.'" The song also mentioned Russia's Patriarch Kiril I of Moscow as someone who 'believes in Putin rather than in God.'
So, in essence, this was nothing more than a political protest in a so-called 'holy place.' Big deal. Yet, they are up on 'hooliganism' charges, which in Russia is a serious offence, especially a Russia firmly within the bosom of their mother religion, not to mention firmly under the iron control of the very man whom the band despise, one Vladimir Putin.
Of course, Putin finds it all quite bemusing and just 'hopes that they will learn to be more responsible and respectful in the future.' He would.
He has further gone to great lengths in TV interviews to insist that the verdict will remain 'firmly at the discretion of the court,' as if this was anything but a show trial of momentous political proportions. Again, he would.
Not surprisingly, the laughable and decidedly politicized trial of Pussy Riot has garnered huge outcry from artists and people all over the world. Many, yours truly included, find it a despicable show of unyielding (and jittery?) state power in a country trying so hard to assert itself as a democratic nation. This is a 'misdemeanour' at most, worthy of a small fine and possibly community service, the equivalent of a legal slap on the wrist. It could, unfortunately, prove more costly to these brave, determined punk rockers.
Pussy Riot are the epitome of what I have always admired about punk - anti-establishment, socially angry for all the right reasons and fundamentally political. Even if I don't always relish the music, I am at heart punk. Because punk is about giving it to The Man and making damn sure everyone knows about it. Who the hell can argue with that?!
So, as their show trial unravels and as their legal fate hangs in the balance, my only determination is that this Russian girl punk band must be assertive, proud and, above all else, defiant.
Always it should only be Go, Pussy Riot, Go, Go, GO!!!
