Three of the members of Russian punk rock collective Pussy Riot have been found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and sentenced to two years of labor in a corrective institution, with credit for five months time already served. Judge Marina Syrova called their offence a “serious crime.” “It is simply idiocy,” said a Russian writer of the verdict, while E.U. and U.S. diplomats have offered a more restrained criticism of the sentence as being apparently disproportionate to the crime. In my opinion, that’s an understatement.
11 thoughts on “Shame On Russia”
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This stinks. That it will (IMO) ultimately backfire on the Putin regime will be scant solace to these women for the loss of two years of their lives.Report
I doubt it will backfire on Putin, this is hippie punching, Russian style.Report
Yeah, but in Russia, hippies punch YOU.Report
Odds are that it will not backfire on the Putin regime. The short of it is that Putin has made Russia strong and the Russians “can finally warm themselves in the protective fist of a Caesar and I’m sure you know the word for Caesar in Russian” (paraphrased.)
There will be a few protests over this but nothing of any consequence will happen.Report
Darn you guys and your fatalism attempting to extinguish any small sliver of light out of this!
Which is very….Russian, now that I think about it.Report
Here’s hoping this rebounds hard on uncle Vlad and his pet thugs.Report
I thought the most interesting part of the verdict was this line: “The court does find a religious hatred motive in the actions of the defendants by way of them being feminists who consider men and women to be equal.” The argument after that was fascinating because it tried to reconcile that to the fact that the Russian constitution also considers men and women to be equal.Report
While this is an unduly harsh punishment for their publicity stunt, it does strike me as an unduly lenient punishment for their music.Report
Exactly how I’d feel if they threw Ted Nugent in jail.Report
A Tweet from a Putin supporter:
“”No normal Russian would support these c@nts. The only ones for Pussy Riot are emigrants, fags and kikes.” Eduard Bagirov, Putin Loyalist and Blogger”Report
oy….Report