Pussy Riot Update: Alleged Members Imprisoned

Image via en.rian.ru

About a month ago, I wrote about Pussy Riot’s exciting brand of activism. Sadly, in the weeks since Vladimir Putin’s re-election, the situation for Russia’s riot grrrls has become incredibly bleak. After the group’s demonstration at Christ the Savior Cathedral, alleged Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were arrested and detained. (I say “alleged” because Pussy Riot has gone to great lengths to conceal the identities of its members, so it is not clear whether Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova are actually members or not.) The arrests occurred the day before the election, possibly in an effort to prevent protests after Putin’s election. Last week, a hearing was held for Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova’s release, but the Moscow City Court rejected the appeal. They will be held in pre-trial detention until April 24 at minimum, and if convicted of the charges brought against them, they could face up to seven years in prison.

From RIA Novosti:

The judge was biased because she was a target of a provocative stunt involving Tolokonnikova last year, said defense lawyer Nikolai Polozov. Tolokonnikova and several members of art group Voina released hundreds of cockroaches in a Moscow courtroom at a separate trial presided by the same judge as a form of protest.

After the arrests of Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova, a third alleged Pussy Riot member, Irina Loktyeva, was also arrested. It is unclear whether she is now being held in pre-trial detention as well.

Pussy Riot’s detractors are accusing them of blasphemy. According to the New York Times, “Russian Orthodox nationalists called on national television for the women to be publicly flogged, while other Orthodox activists have condemned such calls as shameful, citing Jesus’ compassion for fallen women.” The Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin has gone even further, advocating for a “war” against Pussy Riot:

The Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin, a senior Orthodox cleric known for his own outrageous statements on a range of topics, reiterated on Monday that there were no grounds for leniency and “that this text and this video are extremist materials, and their dissemination constitutes an extremist activity.”

The members of Pussy Riot “have declared war on Orthodox people, and there will be a war,” he told the Interfax news agency. “If the blasphemers are not punished, God will punish them in eternity and here through people.”

While Pussy Riot’s protests have been bold and confrontational, none of them have resorted to violence. The calls for punishments against women like Alyokhina, Tolokonnikova and Loktyeva are completely disproportionate to the acts of protest Pussy Riot has staged. I am hoping that the charges against them are dropped, but at the moment, the situation is not looking promising.

To take action and show your opposition to Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova’s detention, sign Change.org’s petition.

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