Faith

Female Russian Rockers Could Face 7 Years in Jail After ‘Blasphemous’ Anti-Putin Pulpit Prayer

Female Russian Rockers Face 7 Years in Jail for Anti Putin Prayer

Members of the female Russian punk band under fire after their anti-Putin prayer (AP)

MOSCOW (The Blaze/AP) — Talk about a harsh punishment. A Russian court ordered two female punk rockers (some have characterized them as radical feminists) to remain in jail Wednesday for praying to the Virgin Mary to deliver the nation from Vladimir Putin in a surprise performance in the country’s main Orthodox cathedral.

Five members of the band Pussy Riot — wearing brightly colored homemade ski masks and miniskirts — briefly seized the pulpit of Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in late February to chant “Mother Mary, drive Putin away.”

Female Russian Rockers Face 7 Years in Jail for Anti Putin Prayer

A supporter of a female Russian punk band holds a photo placard of the band while she and others picket the Moscow Central Court in Moscow, Wednesday, March, 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

In less then a minute, the women were rounded up by security guards. Two of them were later arrested and face up to seven years in jail on charges of hooliganism.

Putin, who won a third presidential term in a March 4 election, described the performance as “unpleasant for all believers” and expressed hope that it would not be repeated.

The Russian Orthodox Church said the women deserve “fair justice” for the “blasphemous” performance at the cathedral, although thousands of believers signed a petition urging the church to forgive the band.

While this isn’t video from the performance in question, it showcases the band’s tactics and style:

Moscow City Court spokeswoman Anna Usacheva said Wednesday that Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova will remain in custody until a hearing in late April. She said the other performers also will be identified and arrested.

Attorneys for the arrested band members said the two women should be released because they have young children. The women have declared a hunger strike to protest their continued detention, the attorneys said.

The band gained notoriety in January for performing an anti-Putin song on Red Square from a spot used in czarist Russia for announcing government decrees. A video of the performance became an Internet hit.

About 20 Orthodox activists rallied in front of the court and some clashed with supporters of the band.

Female Russian Rockers Face 7 Years in Jail for Anti Putin Prayer

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (AP)

“You shouldn’t bring such behavior into a church,” said Orthodox activist Nikita Slepnev. “We don’t need dancing prostitutes in our churches.”

Although church and state are separate under Russia’s constitution, the Russian Orthodox Church has claimed a leading role in setting moral guidelines for society.

It has called for tighter controls on the content of television broadcasts and for the banning of books such as Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita.”

The church has experienced a revival since the collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union in 1991. Its growing prominence has caused concern among followers of minority faiths and non-religious Russians.

Comments (12)

  • theproperstranger
    Posted on March 16, 2012 at 3:36am

    What this article does not tell you, and you can see in the news over here is that this outfit has been doing outrageous things for a long time. before the church incedents, they were going around sexually assulting police women and security guards at their posts. I’ve seen several videos of it. These girls would run up to an unsuspecting female police officer and grab them then force a big sloppy open mouth kiss on their lips. Try doing that in the US and see how much time you get before you start howeling about freedom in Russia. These people are just using Putin as an excuse. They really just want to stick their fingers in the eyes of all decent working religious people. (Just like the occupy crowd.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TliSJxsObw

    Report Post »  
  • Johann
    Posted on March 15, 2012 at 9:05pm

    If this happened in the US Nancy Pelosi, Bill Maher, Obama, Jane Fonda etc would praise them for commiting sacrilege against the hated Chrisitians. Funny how Putin now is seen as a defender of Christianity and the American Atheist State has declared war on traditional Christians. America has become a hateful place where Chrisitanity is constantly under attack. America delenda est.

    Report Post »  
  • Constantine Ivanov
    Posted on March 15, 2012 at 6:39pm

    All those readers here who condemn Russian girls for “more an attack on the Orthodox Church than on Putin” have missed two very important points:
    1. Both music and text of their anti-Putin manifestation are very much related to the Russian Orthodox Church.
    Only those foreigners who don’t know Russian language and the Russian Spiritual music could miss those ties.
    2. Those girls were perfectly aware of a possibility to be arrested. And they also knew how physically dangerous is to be arrested in Russia. So, even though their anti-Putin protest may seem to some American “purists” naive and mischievous, those girls have balls that our men don’t have to protest against our Usurper-in-Chief.

    Report Post » Constantine Ivanov  
    • ThoreauHD
      Posted on March 15, 2012 at 8:32pm

      If they had balls, they wouldn’t have put Christians in harms way, or insulted them by wearing slut gear on the altar of a Church.

      If that’s called respect in Russia, then they really are screwed.

      Report Post » ThoreauHD  
    • Constantine Ivanov
      Posted on March 16, 2012 at 12:56am

      One type of crazy people are copulating in public in the St. Patrick Cathedral in New York.
      Others are using Russian Orthodox Church to rebel against the KGB-in-Chief.
      I am for keeping the Church away from non-religious things.
      But I still comprehend and sympathize with political anti-Putin rebellions a lot more than sex-addicted bastards on the Fifth Ave., NY.

      Report Post » Constantine Ivanov  
  • Whyismynamealwaystaken
    Posted on March 15, 2012 at 6:15pm

    hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

    Report Post » Whyismynamealwaystaken  
  • theproperstranger
    Posted on March 15, 2012 at 2:51pm

    I am married to aRussian and live in Ukraine. You do NOT preform agit-prop in a church! They still have standards of behavior here and they know when you allow such things the anarchists, communests, and others are just putting their foot in the door. Americans may understand this some day.

    Report Post »  
  • TheLordReigns
    Posted on March 15, 2012 at 11:55am

    ATHEISM amounts to ETERNAL ISOLATIONISM

    Report Post »  
  • truelife
    Posted on March 15, 2012 at 11:10am

    #1 if these masked girls want to dance like fools in the church, dont try and push them out, but rip their masks off….. I guarentee they won’t keep dancing like that with their identities exposed.;.. #2 the irony… they are masked, and putin is again seen as the defender of the ‘Christians’….

    Report Post »  
  • JackSprat
    Posted on March 15, 2012 at 9:19am

    Obama sees how Putin stifles his opposition and wishes. The left is getting ramped up and Obama will use every opportunity at his disposal. The tipping point is very close in our Republic and citizens will have a choice when it tips. Depending on how we react, we may never have a choice again!

    Report Post » JackSprat  
  • sillyfreshness
    Posted on March 15, 2012 at 1:29am

    Wow, I see Russia is becoming almost as totalitarian as the United States. Here we have our government assassinating American citizens (NDAA law) and Russia is arresting dissidents (kind of like the US as well). I’m thinking about escaping to Cuba or North Korea to freedom.

    Report Post » sillyfreshness  
  • James B. McDonald
    Posted on March 14, 2012 at 7:57pm

    They should be locked up. Their crime isn’t for speaking out against Putin, the crime is taking over the church “charges of hooliganism”, They “seized the pulpit of Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral” which sounds bad to me.
    It sounds like more of an attack on the Orthodox Church than on Putin. Why did they pick a church? The only reason would be because it was also a anti-religous protest.
    Their attorney thinks they should be released because they have small children..Maybe they should have thought about that before staging the protest.

    Report Post »  

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