Prosecutors ask for 3 years in Russian punk band Pussy Riot hooliganism case

Defense lawyers and an influential Russian Orthodox cleric warned that jail time for the women could backfire by severing trust between ordinary Russians and the country's institutions.

|
Misha Japaridze/AP
Pussy Riot members, from left, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alekhina sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Russia, on Aug. 3.

Prosecutors on Tuesday called for three-year sentences for the members of a feminist punkband who performed an anti-Vladimir Putin stunt in Moscow's main cathedral, ignoring demands by human rights groups that the three women be set free.

Defense lawyers and an influential Russian Orthodox cleric warned that jail time for the women could backfire by severing trust between ordinary Russians and the country's institutions.

Prosecutor Alexander Nikiforov portrayed his request as lenient, saying the recommendation takes into account the fact that two of the defendants are young mothers and that they have good character references.

Vladimir Putin 101: A quiz about Russia's president

The hooliganism charges the three women of the Pussy Riot band face can carry a sentence of up to 7 years in prison.

The three women — Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23; Maria Alekhina, 24; and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29 — have been in custody for five months following the February stunt, in which they took over a church pulpit in Christ the Savior cathedral for less than a minute, singing, high-kicking and dancing.

Their case is part of a widening government crackdown on dissent that followed Putin's election in March and caused strong protests in Russia and abroad. Musicians including Madonna, the Who's Pete Townshend and Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys have urged their release.

The verdict is expected this week.

The defendants have said their goal was to express their resentment over Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill's support for Putin's rule. But prosecutors have insisted throughout the trial that there were no political motives behind the performance.

"They set themselves off against the Orthodox world and sought to devalue traditions and dogmas that have been formed for the centuries," Nikiforov said Tuesday.

Members of the band say they did not mean to hurt anyone's religious feelings when they performed the "punk prayer."

Larisa Pavlova, a lawyer for the church employees who were described as the injured party in the case told the court on Tuesday that she supports the sentencing recommendation.

Pavlova said most hooliganism in Russia is committed when people are drunk and they often regret what they have done — but the defendants "thoroughly planned, rehearsed (their performance) and were fully aware of what they were doing."

"And they had the audacity to say in court that they did the right thing, that it's OK and that they're ready to keep on doing such things," Pavlova said.

Tolokonnikova chuckled as Pavlova mentioned in her speech that feminism in Russia is incompatible with Orthodox faith.

Pussy Riot lawyer Violetta Volkova voiced the band's complaint that the women had been deprived of sleep and food throughout the trial, describing it as "torture."

"In this trial, authorities, not the girls, have dealt a crushing blow on the Russian Orthodox Church," Volkova said. "Time has turned back — back to the Middle Ages."

The trial has sharply divided Russia. Some believers felt insulted by the act, while others believe they are innocents who are being treated unfairly.

Mark Feygin, a lawyer for the band, argued that a guilty verdict would "break a bond between the government and people for good" and that "society will never forgive the state for persecuting the innocent."

Orthodox leaders have ignored calls by many believers to pardon the women and urge the court to dismiss the case.

Archdeacon Andrei Kurayev, an influential Orthodox blogger and Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy, warned in an interview with the RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday that jail time for the three would "turn them into martyrs" and would only feed hostility toward the Church.

Meanwhile, Russian Internet users were fuming over a video of Putin visiting a northern Russian monastery on Monday where a priest kneeled down to kiss his hand.

Though Putin was visibly annoyed by the display of deference, many Russians felt the incident accurately portrayed a too-cozy relationship between the leader and the Orthodox church.

The church said that the priest was from Macedonia, where it's not unusual for men of the cloth to kiss the hands of laymen as a sign of humility.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Prosecutors ask for 3 years in Russian punk band Pussy Riot hooliganism case
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0807/Prosecutors-ask-for-3-years-in-Russian-punk-band-Pussy-Riot-hooliganism-case
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe