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RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR Putin hailed the two-year jail sentences against three members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot for staging a performance protesting his rule, according to a report today.
“It was right to arrest them, and it was right that the court took the decision that it did,” Putin said in a television programme aired on NTV, Interfax news agency said.
The programme was to air in Moscow at this afternoon but was broadcast to audiences in the Russian Far East earlier.
“One cannot undermine the moral foundations, break up the country. What would we be left with?” Putin reportedly said of the Pussy Riot performance in a cathedral in Moscow in February that led to their sentence.
He also said he had not exerted any pressure in the sentencing of the women. “I had nothing to do with it. They wanted it, and they got it,” Putin was quoted as saying.
“My first reaction was to ask believers to forgive them, I thought it would end at that,” Putin reportedly said. But the case was “wheeled up to trial, and the trial slapped a little two years on them,” he said.
“It’s important to say tender words on a person’s birthday,” Pussy Riot said in a sarcastic reaction on Twitter to the president’s words. “Putin told our members about the ‘little two years’.”
“A little two years there, a little five years there,” opposition leader Alexei Navalny wrote. “Misha got a little eight,” he said, referring to jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s sentence.
Donning brightly coloured balaclavas, the group of women on February 21 belted out a “prayer” in the country’s main cathedral, Christ the Saviour, calling on the Virgin Mary to remove Putin.
Three Pussy Riot members, Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were convicted in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, and sentenced to two years in a prison camp.
Moscow city court will hear their appeal on Wednesday.
Putin celebrated his 60th birthday Sunday, receiving warm wishes from supporters and numerous mentions on state television, but the event aroused derision from critics who since late last year have held regular mass protests against his rule.
- © AFP, 2012
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Well if this was Russia we would all get 2 years plus for the way we speak openly here about our Government?? Ohhh and B I am not funded directly or indirectly by the US :p
Spot the CIA operative in our ranks. Scratch that, say a wrong word here and you’ll be outed as in the pay of the Rothchilds or Bilderburger Group…
This is the same band that erected signs in a central Moscow area a while back protesting AGAINST gay people and Jews.
These guys were indirectly funded by US Justice Department and deserved what they got.
2 years for a 55 second protest that hurt nobody is plain wrong.
If what you say is true then I don’t feel sorry for them but pussy riot and their beliefs isn’t really the issue.
The issue is, anybody against Putin gets banged up without cause.
Their failure is not that they protested, it’s they protested in a stupid way that left themselves open to charges and jail-time. That said, the case turned into idiot vs idiot, as giving them anything other than a suspended sentence hands ammunition over to those opposed to Putinville..
I think you will find they protested on pro gay rights which is why they are in prison Not against it, I don’t know about anti Jew
B Lowe , I just read up on them and they support gay rights. It’s in their lyrics and they have participated in gay pride parades. Where is your evidence in what you say?
They’re guitarist is cute.
Saw a movie recently about a women’s prison in Russia. They seemed happy but had great difficulty keeping their clothes on. Therefore I am sure they will be grand.
judging by the look of them id say being locked up with a load of women would be right up their alley
From a completely different angle… I bet sales of their albums are off the scales over there. They will make millions each while in prison. then think of the world tour they will get on release….
I dont even think the bleeding heart liverals whove eaten up their propoganda would stomach paying to listen to their drivel
And I thought the Yanks took religion too seriously, the Russians are worse now.
Putan ! As the French would say !
what a crazy ass country. love Russian women though.
Did they also organise a mass orgy in a public art gallery before? I read that somewhere before I think…..
mass orgy? how could you organise a mass orgy? would it not be the same as a regular orgy?
have your say