Punk Versus Putin: What's The Fuss About Pussy Riot?

People have every right to question the merits of so-called “punk rock” bands who have infiltrated the mainstream with little more than a bunch of tattoos and songs about failed relationships. But in Russia right now, punk rock has proven to do what its purest intentions seem to have been; it has caused a serious political headache for a regime that the country's youth are disenchanted with.

Pussy Riot is a punk collective made up of over ten women and they hit headlines around the world this February when three of the group's members were arrested for performing their “punk prayer” Holy Shit at Moscow's Christ The Saviour Cathedral in opposition to support the Russian Orthodox Church was giving to Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin.

Watch the performance here:

The trial against the women has just begun and it is believed that, if the three women who were caught when a warrant was issued (the two others who performed remain at large) are found guilty of charges pertaining to aggravated hooliganism, they could face up to seven years in jail. The women, Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were arrested and detained without trial and they have already had a request for bail denied in April. While the incident itself is seemingly harmless, if not a little startling for those devoted to the religion, the disproportionate reaction by Russian authorities has shed light on the nature of the country's current political climate, the Putin government blatantly referred to as a dictatorship in a number of instances. Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, considered the act proof that the church was “under attack”. 

In court Tolokonnikova, 22, urged, “We did not want to offend anybody. Our motives were exclusively political.”

"We are not enemies of Christianity. The opinion of Orthodox believers is important to us and we want all of them to be on our side – on the side of anti-authoritarian civil activists," she said, according to Reuters. “Our performance contained no aggression toward the public - only a desperate desire to change the situation in Russia for the better.”

On the other side of the coin, Lyubov Sokologorskaya – a “victim” of Pussy Riot's demonstration said that the  bare shoulders, short skirts and aggressive dance moves that the women in the performance exhibited violated church rules and offended the faithful.

This week a piece by British writer Carole Cadwalladr published in The Observer has opened up a little more about the collective; who they are as people, what their goals are and how they go about achieving these objectives. The first point Cadwalladr makes about the three members of the group she interviews (they're not the three who are imprisoned), is their kindness, saying that they're the nicest revolutionaries you're likely to meet, complimenting their intelligence, humour and sensitivity as well as their tenacity.

The women, who all wear balaclavas, say that their anonymity isn't just to protect them, it's also symbolic and an important part of the vision they have for the collective.

"When I'm in a mask I feel a little bit like a superhero and maybe feel more power,” 22-year-old Sparrow says. “I feel really brave, I believe that I can do everything and I believe that I can change the situation."

Though in response to that, 33-year-old Balaclava rebuts somewhat.

“I disagree. We are not superwomen – we are pretty ordinary women and our goal is that all women in Russia can become like this without masks,” she says.

Sparrow goes on to explain that the members of the group are always ready for action, carrying their balaclavas everywhere.

“It's like Batman: you always have it with you, just in case,” she says.

Russian television, which is run by the government, is allegedly full of anti-Pussy Riot sentiment and the prosecutors asked for the trial to be streamed live, with press to be eliminated from the courtroom. This would allow the government to filter out any parts of the case they do not wish to be seen by the public. The women who make up Pussy Riot say it's pretty simple what's going on.

“Putin is scared of us, can you imagine?” Squirrel told Cadwalladr. “Scared of girls”

In Cadwalladr's piece, she insinuates that there is support among those who were offended by the act for the three women to be punished. Though no one seemed supportive of a seven year jail term, “More than 200 well-known public people signed an open letter condemning the trial, including many Putin supporters, and another 41,000 rank-and-file Russians have added their signatures,” she writes.

Amnesty International have called for the immediate release of the women, while earlier this year a judge presiding over the Pussy Riot case was threatened with an axe.

As well as the general injustice of the punishment, another great fear is that two of the imprisoned women who have young children may not see them grow up if sentenced to seven years.

The case continues.