[Polopolop]

She may have something there. I've read that periodically there are little parades or demonstrations with people in support of the old communist regime. Either because they were well taken care of, or they believe Russia was more powerful then.



I really would like Russian culture to define itself through pizza, wine, something, not through its soul and not through the West. What does she mean by this? Why wouldn't she want Russia to define itself through its own soul? Just because she believes Russians like to suffer doesn't mean the collective Russian soul is defeatist, or fatalistic maybe is the word I'm looking for. They like the struggle, fine. Give them something worth struggling for. Freedom to them meant a 300% markup on clothes & groceries after communism fell. With Putin & his ilk in power, what is there besides that?

[toopyimport]

"Soul" is too subjective. Every culture and every time has their own definition of it, and variations therein.

I did not read her article, but I can see where using an ephemeral quality as a guide/stanchion would be something that is not stable enough to provide a good base.

[tq4F7YKs]

Pussy Riot Seizes The Mantle Of Political Punk

The Daily Dish
August 7, 2012


by Gwynn Guilford

Spencer Ackerman explains how Putin's persecution of the band has backfired:

Pussy Riot has skewered Putin on the horns of a dilemma: Either his government convicts the band and martyrs it even further, or it backs down and concedes that prosecuting the masked trio for a cacophonous musical protest at Christ the Savior Cathedral that called attention to the Russian church's alliance with the Putin regime was always a mistake. Three of the five band members now face the prospect of seven years in prison, which has prompted an unlikely international outcry. On Thursday, Aug. 2, ahead of a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Putin indicated he'd prefer to back down.
Previous coverage of Pussy Riot here and here.

(Photo: Members of the all-girl punk band 'Pussy Riot' Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (L), Maria Alyokhina (R) and Yekaterina Samutsevich (C), sit behind bars during a court hearing in Moscow on July 23, 2012. By Andrey Smirnov/AFP/Getty Images)

[TagBahthuff]

Looks like they've upgraded the accommodations.

Still, Putin is getting ... uhmmmm ... pussy whipped ...

Pussy Riot: Vladimir Putin Calls for 'Correct, Well-Founded Ruling' on Russian Girl Punk Band

Defence lawyers accuse Russian president of making gesture to keep business healthy with the West

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES
By GIANLUCA MEZZOFIORE
August 3, 2012 12:05 PM GMT


Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (left), Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina on trial in Moscow (Twitter)

Russian president Vladimir Putin said that a Russian court should not judge the three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot too severely for a cathedral protest against him.

Putin's remarks raised defence lawyer's hopes that the three could escape the maximum seven years in prison if convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred or hostility.

Putin criticised Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina for their "punk prayer" from the altar of Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral but said he did not want to see them punished too harshly.

"There is nothing good in this," Putin told journalists at the end of a one-day trip to London where he met David Cameron and watched judo at the London 2012 Olympic Games. "I wouldn't really like to comment but if the girls were, let's say, in Israel, and insulted something in Israel ... it wouldn't be so easy for them to leave.

"[If they] desecrated some Muslim holy site, we wouldn't even have had time to detain them," he added.

"Nonetheless, I don't think they should be judged too severely for this. The final decision rests with the courts - I hope the court will deliver a correct, well-founded ruling."

Sceptical defence lawyers said in court that Putin's comment was "a gesture towards the West, towards the consumers of Russian energy resources and Putin's business partners".

"Given the significance of such signals, we can expect some softening of the prosecution's position," Mark Feygin, a lawyer for Pussy Riot, told the Guardian.

Townshend, Cocker, Kapranos and Marr

"On the one hand, Putin's statement is without doubt a manoeuvre for the international community, because he is clearly worried by the international reaction as it is out of his control. On the other hand, he is frantically trying to find an exit so as not to take responsibility."

Earlier, leading British rock musicians called on Putin to ensure a fair hearing for Pussy Riot.

The Times published a letter from the Who's Pete Townshend, Jarvis Cocker, Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, Corinne Bailey Rae and Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys urging a fair trial.

This article is copyrighted by IBTimes.co.uk

[DongoSab]

It's a good thing they kept those hoodlums in that box during the trial.

Who knows what they could have done if they were allowed to sit out on a bench or something in the WIDE OPEN!!!!

(BTW, Maria looks like death warmed over.... not a happy camper!)

[AricGoffgog]

I like the charge: hooliganism.

Funny that it worked its way into the Russian lexicon.

Obviously of Irish or British origin, may connect to Хулиган (khuligan) in Russian.

1918 film, The Young Lady and the Hooligan

[opelonafqe]

GUILTY
"A Moscow judge has sentenced each of three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison on hooliganism charges following a trial that has drawn international outrage."

Pussy Riot Trial: Feminist Punk Band Guilty Of Hooliganism, Motivated By Religious Hatred

MOSCOW — A Moscow judge has sentenced each of three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison on hooliganism charges following a trial that has drawn international outrage.

Friday's sentence comes amid a wave of protests around the world in support of the feminist rockers.

The judge said in the verdict that the three band members "committed hooliganism driven by religious hatred" and offended religious believers.

The three were arrested in March after a guerrilla performance in Moscow's main cathedral calling for the Virgin Mary to protect Russia against Vladimir Putin, who was elected to a new term as Russia's president two weeks later.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

A judge found three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot guilty of hooliganism on Friday, in a case that has drawn widespread international condemnation as an emblem of Russia's intolerance of dissent.

The judge said the three band members "committed hooliganism driven by religious hatred" and offended religious believers. The three were arrested in March after a guerrilla performance in Moscow's main cathedral calling for the Virgin Mary to protect Russia against Vladimir Putin, who was elected to a new term as Russia's president two weeks later.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23; Maria Alekhina, 24; and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, face a maximum seven years in prison, although the prosecutors asked for a three-year sentence. They stood in a glass cage in the courtroom, sad smiles sometimes flickering on their lips, as the judge read out the testimony of prosecution witnesses accusing them of sacrilege and "devilish dances" in church.

On the street outside, hundreds of Pussy Riot supporters chanted "Russia without Putin!" amid a heavy police presence. Police rounded up a few dozen protesters, including former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, who is a leading opposition activist, and leftist opposition group leader Sergei Udaltsov.

[berdyanskdotsu]

This is the wrong set of people to hold to the flame as an example to be set.

They need to find someone who looks more like a "hooligan" to call a hooligan.

[Clolmemaexata]

Tweeting the response ...

Ilya Mouzykantskii

@ilyamuz

about 52 minutes ago

This is novel: parked car blasting PussyRiot music out of windows really loud. Doesnt seem like there's much fuzz can do




Police quote: "well, this is ****ing cool music"




This has turned into an impromptu rave with periodic chants of "freedom" #freepussyriot #wtfoftheday




Wall of riot police in #moscow begin to push protesters out of streets #picoftheday #pleaseRT #freepussyriot




Being pushed onto bridge woth everyone else
23 about a minute ago

[Wr8dIAUk]

Putinism After Pussy Riot

The Khodorkovsky case shocked the world. The persecution of the punk protestors
merely confirms what many already know about Russia's president.
By JULIA PETTENGILL

The sentence handed down last week to three members of the punk group Pussy Riot came as little surprise to Kremlin-watchers. The pre-trial detention, unfair trial and harsh punishment of these young women for their anti-Putin performance in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior was strikingly similar to the treatment meted out to Putin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2004.

Like the Khodorkovsky case, the Pussy Riot verdict will also likely stand as a watershed moment for the Russian Federation, and for President Vladimir Putin personally. Both played out under the full glare of the international spotlight, and both damaged the country's reputation by confirming its disrespect for the rule of law. But whereas the Khodorkovsky case shocked the world, Pussy Riot merely confirms what many already know: that Mr. Putin is not a man who will compromise, and who will never put his country's interests before his own.

Pussy Riot's prosecutors went beyond the usual hallmarks of an unfair trial to embrace an inquisitorial style of justice. Anti-Pussy Riot protestors shouted "witches!" during the reading of the verdict. Reporting from inside the courtroom, journalist Julia Ioffe recounted scenes better suited to the satires of Bulgakov than a 21st-century court: At one point, the prosecutor asked a witness if he thought the defendants could have been possessed during their performance. The question was struck because the witness was "not a medical expert."

Technocrats within the Kremlin have grumbled, mostly behind the scenes, that the trial makes the country look backwards and will harm business interests. Valery Fedotov, a deputy in Mr. Putin's United Russia party, complained that it would make Russia the "laughingstock of the world." Former finance minister and longtime Putin ally Alexei Kudrin warned that "huge damage has been done to the country's image, and to its attractiveness for investment." Others, including moderately pro-regime analysts Gleb Pavlovsky and Olga Kryshtanovskaya, have warned that the verdict could unleash a new wave of protests and ultimately work against the president.

The proximity of the Pussy Riot verdict to the scheduled announcement of Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization, due to be formalized on Wednesday, captures the strange chimera that is Mr. Putin's Russia. On the one hand, the Russian Federation is taking major strides toward economic modernization. On the other, it's a country that will sentence young women to two years in prison for an irreverent political protest—after seriously debating the evidential requirements for proving demonic possession.

Of course, the nature of the Putin system has left the president with little choice but to make an example of the Pussy Riot defendants. Mr. Putin has a rather Faustian relationship with some of the more corrupt elements of the Russian Orthodox Church; the president's actions couldn't be more at odds with Christian values, yet he relies on the church's conservative elements for legitimacy.

But whatever the reaction of the international community and the pro-democracy movement, Mr. Putin has judged the example set by this case to be worth it. It's true that few in Russia genuinely support Pussy Riot. Many Russians were offended by what they saw as a desecration, and indeed the defendants apologized for this "ethical mistake." According to a poll by the independent Levada Center, 47% of Russians believe Pussy Riot violated society's moral values. Yet significantly, 54% opposed jailing them for this offense.

As for those who have taken up Pussy Riot's cause, there is little doubt that they will use this latest outrage to further galvanize the protest movement, and will no doubt benefit from the international attention already generated by the trial. This is just what is needed to get the country's attention back on the need for political reform, particularly ahead of important regional elections that will take place in the coming year. With Mr. Putin's approval ratings taking an unprecedented fall over the past six months, a continued crackdown is likely to further erode his legitimacy, both domestically and internationally.

On Friday reports streamed in from Moscow about the violent confrontations and arrests of activists outside the Pussy Riot trial, as if to emphasize to the world how little the Russian government cares about bad press. Yet the more Russians who are arrested, silenced, beaten and imprisoned, the fewer options Mr. Putin will have. Eventually enough Russians, and enough world leaders, will tire of his government by decree and charade.

As defendant Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said in her closing statement, "This is a trial of the whole government system of Russia, which so likes to show its harshness toward the individual, its indifference to his honor and dignity. If this political system throws itself against three girls . . . it shows this political system is afraid of truth."

—Ms. Pettengill is chair of the Russia Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society.

Copyright ©2012 Dow Jones & Company