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Further home support for Pussy Riot crushed as overseas voices remain unheard
Other | Friday 21st September 2012 | Osh
The Russian Orthodox Church will defrock a priest who has acted against the imprisonment of the infamous punks.
The saga of Russian musical activists Pussy Riot continues to go badly in their home country. The latest casualty of the fight for their freedom is Deacon Sergei Baranov, who will be defrocked – and not in the good way – after leaving the church in protest at the treatment of the women. Support for the outspoken women has grown rapidly elsewhere in the world, with famous faces from the music industry, including Madonna, Green Day, Sir Paul McCartney, Sinead O’Connor and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, all declaring their support for the group.
This follows the decision to award Pussy Riot the LennonOno Grant for Peace in New York. It will be presented by Yoko Ono to the group’s defence team, along with member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s husband and their daughter. The group have spoken out – and sung – against the re-election of President Vladimir Putin – in a recent video, members still at large burn an effigy of Putin, and thank musicians around the world for vocalising their disapproval of the women’s imprisonment, which is seen as a gross violation of the right to free speech across the globe.
Support has come from Russia itself in the form of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, stating that the two-year sentence given to three members is “unproductive”. Let’s hope Putin starts thinking that way soon too.
By Dave Rees
