Today, January 16, is International Day of Solidarity with Pussy
Riot’s Maria Alekhina.
Will the 24-year-old single mother be freed and reunited with her
small child, or continue serving the rest of her two-year sentence in a Russian
prison camp?
The verdict is due out later today.
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
UPDATE: Russian
court decides not to release Maria
A Russian prison court has ruled not to release Maria
Alekhina until her young son comes of age, according to Amnesty
International USA (AIUSA).
"Today's ruling is yet another example of
injustice compounded in the Pussy Riot case,” said Jasmine Heiss, AIUSA’s
individuals at risk campaigner. "From the initial unjustified arrests, to
the questionable trial, to an outrageous verdict, each step in the case has
been an affront to human rights and freedom of expression."
Maria Alekhina's attorneys had petitioned the
Russian court to defer her sentence until after her child turned 14, as she is
a single parent.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Maria is one of three Pussy Riot members jailed for two years in August 2012 for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and “crudely undermining social order” after staging a protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral to take exception to the Russian Orthodox Church leader's support for Putin.
Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and Ekaterina Samucevich offended
the feelings of Orthodox believers and showed a "complete lack of respect,"
the court ruled.
 |
| From left: Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samucevich |
Maria Alekhina is a poet and student at the Institute of Journalism
and Creative Writing. She has a five-year-old son.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, is a visual artist and fourth year
philosophy student. She has a four-year-old daughter.
Ekaterina Samucevich, 30, is also a visual artist with a degree
from The Alexander Rodchenko School of Photography and Multimedia in Moscow.
The police were instructed to arrest the group’s known members a
week after an edited video of the one-minute performance appeared on YouTube.
 |
| Seven members of Pussy Riot (photo Igor Mukhin for Wikipedia) |
Their website
describes Pussy Riot as an anonymous Russian feminist performance art group
formed in October 2011. “Through a series of peaceful performances in highly
visible places, they have given voice to basic rights under threat in Russia
today, while expressing the values and principles of gender equality, democracy
and freedom of expression contained in the Russian constitution and other
international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW).”
Punk Prayer
The feminist punk-rock collective gained international attention
and notoriety last year when on February 21, 2012, five members of the group
staged a performance on the soleas of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Church
security officials stopped them. By evening, they had turned it into a music
video entitled "Punk Prayer -- Mother of God, Chase Putin Away!"
Pussy Riot has a variable membership of approximately 11 women who wear
brightly colored balaclavas. Their lyrical themes include feminism, LGBT
rights, opposition to Putin, whom they regard as a dictator and links between
the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church and Putin.
Kirill
I, Patriarch of Moscow and all the Rus', openly
supported Putin's 2012 re-election, calling him a "miracle from God,"
who had "rectified the crooked path of history."
On appeal last October, Ekaterina Samucevich was freed on
probation, her sentence suspended because she had not actually entered the
church. The sentences of the other two women were upheld. In late October, Maria
and Nadezhda were sent to prison camps.
The trial and sentence attracted considerable criticism,
particularly in the West. The case was adopted by human rights groups including
Amnesty International, which designated the women as prisoners of conscience,
and by a wide range of musicians including Madonna, Bryan Adams, Mark Knopfler,
Sting and Yoko Ono.
While acknowledging the outpouring of support, Pussy Riot distanced
themselves from Western artists and reiterated their opposition to the
capitalist model of art as commodity. "We're flattered, of course, that
Madonna and Björk have offered to perform with us. But the only performances
we'll participate in are illegal ones. We refuse to perform as part of the
capitalist system, at concerts where they sell tickets," they are quoted
as saying.
Amnesty International called
the conviction "a bitter blow for freedom of expression." Hugh
Williamson, of Human Rights Watch, said
the "charges and verdict... distort both the facts and the law... These
women should never have been charged with a hate crime and should be released
immediately." ARTICLE
19, Freedom
House, and the International Federation for
Human Rights also issued statements condemning the sentence.
Last September, Yoko Ono awarded the band the biennial Lennon-Ono
Grant for Peace, saying she intended to work for the group's immediate release.
Public opinion in Russia was generally less sympathetic towards the
women. Putin said the band had "undermined the moral foundations" of
the nation and "got what they deserved."
Pussy Riot has not released any conventional albums. However, their
songs are freely available for download on a number of Internet sites,
collected together under the title Ubey seksista ("Kill
the Sexist").
Their first public performance as members of Pussy Riot was in
November 2011. Several masked women performed Osvobodi Bruschatku ("Release
the Cobblestones") atop a scaffold in a Moscow subway and from the top of
trolley cars, while tearing apart down feather pillows, showering feathers onto
the train platform below. The song recommends Russians protest upcoming
parliamentary elections, by throwing cobblestones during street clashes.
 |
| The January 2012 performance in Red Square (Photo by Denis Bochkarev for Wikipedia) |
In January 2012, eight Pussy Riot members performed on the Lobnoye Mesto in
Red Square. Their song, Putin Zassal, urged a popular revolt against the
Russian government and an occupation of Red Square. According to a Pussy Riot
member identified as "Shayba," the song was inspired by the events
of December 24, 2011, when
nearly 100,000 people attended anti-Putin rallies in central Moscow.
Penal colonies
The defendants pleaded not guilty, saying they had not meant their
protest to be offensive. "We sang part of the refrain 'Holy shit'," Nadezhda
Tolokonnikova said in court. "I am sorry if I offended anyone with this.
It is an idiomatic expression, related to the previous verse -- about the
fusion of Moscow patriarchy and the government. 'Holy shit' is our evaluation
of the situation in the country. This opinion is not blasphemy."
The women asked to serve their sentence at the pre-trial detention
facility in Moscow. Their request was denied. Nadezhda and Maria were sent to
penal colonies in Mordovia
and Perm Oblast respectively.
Will Maria Alekhina walk free today?
