Artists On Trial

It is very disheartening to hear about the Stalinist trial of Russian punk group Pussy Riot. Vladimir Putin has orchestrated a ridiculous trial of three young women artists, whom the state is accusing of hooliganism and instigating hatred against the church. They did a 30 second performance against the corrupt tactics of Putin and spoke against the confabulation of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church with Putin’s government. For that, they could spend three years in a forced labor camp (they still have those over there).

There has been widespread national and international support for Pussy Riot, but to judge from this dispatch from The New Yorker, Putin doesn’t care about bad p.r. He is a dictator and not afraid to use mock trials, intimidation and repression to assert his venal, corrupt authority.

Here is Yekaterina Samutsevitch’s closing statement. The English translation is below the video.

We wish the women from Pussy Riot justice, dignity and freedom.