Pussy Riot Have Steamed Everyone

MYPLACE team members at Centre for Youth Research, Higher School of Economics (St Petersburg) present their latest blog on punk-feminist  protest.

For more information on the MYPLACE project, visit the project’s website: HERE

Punk-feminists, famous for their performances, finally attracted the government’s attention. Maria Alekhina and Nedezhda Tolokonniova are under arrest till the 24^th of April while the investigation about their punk-prayer at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCasuaAczKY&feature=youtu.be . 

The performance took place on the 21^st of February and caused a heated discussion also among the representatives of Russian Orthodox Church. Some offered to forgive them, others – to punish. In the blog  the feminists published their ideological substantiation of such a prayer and the photos from the event http://pussy-riot.livejournal.com/12442.html They are outraged with Patriarch Kirill’s behavior during the election campaign – in their opinion, he is wrong agitating for Vladimir Putin and speaks against politicking of people who participate in the “For incorrupt elections” meetings. For this reason the main protagonists of their song are Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill. The girls sing “Holy Mother, dismiss Putin!” imitating  the chants between the couplets.

The girls had spent a couple of minutes at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior when the security took out the girls dancing in front of the altar (according to the Orthodox tradition, this is a place where churchmen read out scriptures). However, the girls were neither detained   nor denounced to the police. After the video had become popular in the Internet, Pussy Riot  gave the interviews to the printing press.

The reaction was quite predictable.  Orthodox Church representatives wrote a petition to the procurator’s office  asking to institute criminal proceedings, check if they belong to any extremism movement, and convict “demon-possessed girls”.  The head of “Russian Milk” Vaily Boiko-Velikiy promised a reward to the one who will manage to establish the identities of the participants of the punk-prayer – 50 thousand rubles for one name (1,5 thousand dollars) http://ruskline.ru/news_rl/2012/02/24/sud_nad_etimi_bogohulnicami_budet_samoj_myagkoj_karoj/.

However, there were also the girls’ supporters. For instance, a priest Andrey Kuraev offered a pancake meal to them, forgive and let them go – it is still Maslenitsa Carnival and comic minstrels are a part of it.

A feeling that the case is becoming more serious came after the main editor of the “Russian News Service” Sergey Dorenko’s speech. Policemen investigating the case inquired in the office. According to such a move, punk-prayer  caused a negative reaction in the highest administration ranks. Vladimir Putin’s press-secretary approved the president’s concern about the performance at the cathedral. http://www.newsru.com/russia/07mar2012/pussy_riot.htm

On the 3rd of March Nadezhda Tolkonnikova and Maria Alekhina were detained and now are expecting up to seven years of imprisonment. Police has no evidence they took part in the happening on the 21st of February. Both the girls have young children but the court didn’t take it into the consideration and decided to detain them till the 24th of April. They both refused to negotiate and declared a hunger-strike. More than one thousand people signed the reference to patriarch Kirill asking to mercy Alekhina and Tolokonnikova in the LiveJournal.

On the 7th of March Russian Orthodox Church representatives stated that the church was against the real stretch. But a vague hope that Tolokonnikova and Alekhina might be freed by the 8th of March, Women’s Day, vanished – and a series of pickets started in front of the internal affairs ministry building http://www.ridus.ru/news/24942/ People started picketing in Tomsk, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Saint-Petersburg, Kiev, Prague, Vienna, Tel-Aviv, Berlin, Paris, New York. Ecologist Yaroslav Nikitenko has written a lot on the actions supporting civil activists  http://yaroslavn.livejournal.com/87716.html In his opinion, the arrest of Tolkonnikova and Alekhina escalated into the politics.

The same point of view is shared by those participating in the discussion that took place on the 8th of March in Marat Ghelman’s gallery. Human rights activists, journalists, art critics think that the measure of punishment is too severe compared to the misdeed itself and the nature of suspicion is rooted not in the criminal but moral level. A report on this meeting is published on the web-site “Open Action” http://openaction.ru/events/iskusstvovedy-pravozashhitniki-politiki-i-zhurnalisty-ostavlyayut-podpisi-v-podderzhku-pussy-riot.html. This report also includes the lawyer’s appeal saying that in case of society’s inactivity the girls may be detained up to one year and a half –the ultimate period of investigation according to Russian laws.