Justice Still Denied For Pussy Riot

Yesterday three members of the punk rock activist collective Pussy Riot (Nadezhda “Nadia” Tolokonnikova, Maria “Masha” Alyokhina and Yekaterina “Katya” Samutsevich) appealed their two year convictions for “hooliganism” in a Moscow court.   Like the last trial, the defendants weren’t fully allowed to make their case though there was a twist as Samutsevich, with new lawyers, was released on either probation or a suspended sentence (depending on which article you read) while Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina’s two year sentences on a penal colony were upheld (the original sentence was from time of arrest so seven months have already been served according to some sources).

With that decree, three Russian judges (most likely under orders from Putin – who made a TV appearance a couple days before denying a role but supporting their conviction) managed to make Pussy Riot into martyrs for freedom of expression and focused attention on the flaws in the Russian legal system that aren’t likely to go away anytime soon.

 

Supporters of the sentence claim the members of Pussy Riot were motivated by religious hatred, yet  given the protest appeared in the midst of a crack down of opponents of the Putin regime,it is safe to say that this wa a political show trial (especially since only one side got to fully state their case).  All of this over a protest of church/state comingling that, if the regime and the church had let it slide or treated with a fine, wouldn't be in the news right now.  

In the most recent print issue (and a piece I shared online) I pointed out  the obvious - that with the conviction they lost the war on perception internationally,. By sending Nadia and Masha to a remote penal colony (Russia is reported to have some of the roughest prisons in the world), Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church aimed for a short goal only to turn much of the world's attention to how things actually are in Russia.  

As for Katya Sanutsevich's release, some people think this is a  game of "divide and rule.."  A fact that Samutsevich herself has attacked the game and promises to keep up the fight.  It can be said that Katya's release is intended as a possible reestablishing of independence for the courts.  However, with PUtin's approval of the verdict just before appeal, the appearance of independence remains just that - an appeareance that means little.

Meanwhile, the case isn't going away.  They remain prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International and Pen International is calling for their unconditional release.  Pussy Riot's legal team claims they will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, if necessary.  

Time will tell how this tale unfolds.  However, as Nadia and Masha prepare to be sent to remote penal colonies, the fight to have them release looks to continue as an overreaction to an action that was previously punished with a fine has made Pussy Riot a symbol of dissent and freedom of expression.