Pussy Riot: the global protest in photos

THREE members of Pussy Riot, the Russian grrl band, are in prison. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, have been sentenced to two years choky for staging a “punk prayer” against Vladimir Putin in Moscow Christ the Saviour Cathedral (see it here).

Judge Marina Syrova ruled:

“The girls’ actions were sacrilegious, blasphemous and broke the Church’s rules.”

Worldwide protest results. People have been pulling on the band’s trademark colourful balaclavas. Pussy Riot are famous.

Note: The UK Foreign Office minister, Alistair Burt, said: “I am deeply concerned by the sentencing of three members of the band Pussy Riot, which can only be considered a disproportionate response to an expression of political belief.” That would be the UK ,whdre, as Brendan O’Neill notes, you can be sentenced to two months prison for writing a tweet or talking about a riot on Facebook.

Protestors on Dublins O’Connell Street react to the guilty vertdicts handed down in Moscow to the Russian Punk rock group Pussy Riot today. Picture date: Friday August 17, 2012.Photo credit should read: Niall carson/PA Wire

A protester holds a placard at a protest in support of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot, whose members face prison for a stunt against President Vladimir Putin, outside Russia’s embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. The three female band members have been in jail for more than five months because of an anti-Putin prank in Moscow’s main cathedral. A judge is due to rule on their case Friday.(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, right, Yekaterina Samutsevich, left, and Maria Alekhina, center, members of feminist punk group Pussy Riot seen behind a glass wall at a court in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. The three members who were jailed in March following a guerrilla performance denouncing President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral have unwillingly emerged as vivid Â¬Ã³ and very different Â¬Ã³ characters. They await a verdict Friday on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)

Berlin – Bees Riot

A member of the Ukrainian feminist group ‘FEMEN’ stands at the base of sawed down cross erected in honor of victims of political repressions, in protest against the Moscow trial of Russian punk group Pussy Riot, in Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012.(AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

A masked demonstrator attends a demonstration in support of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot, whose members face prison for a stunt against President Vladimir Putin, outside Russia’s embassy in Berlin, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. The three female band members have been in jail for more than five months because of an anti-Putin prank in Moscow’s main cathedral. A judge is due to rule on their case Friday. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Demonstrators hold a banner in support of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot during a protest in Paris Friday Aug. 17, 2012. Three members of Pussy Riot were jailed in March and charged with hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after their punk performance against President Putin in MoscowÂ¬Ãs main cathedral. They are awaiting the verdict later Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

A masked demonstrator holds a child and shouts slogans in support of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot whose members face prison for a stunt against President Vladimir Putin, in St.Petersburg, Russia, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. Pussy Riot members, two of whom have young children, are charged with hooliganism connected to religious hatred, but the case is widely seen as a warning that authorities will only tolerate opposition under tightly controlled conditions.(AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

A work by activist Rosita Sweetman is seen as demonstrators take part in a protest in O’Connell Street, Dublin, against the conviction of members of the provocative Russian punk band Pussy Riot. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday August 17, 2012. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Protesters gather outside the Russian embassy in Edinburgh to protest against the conviction of members of the provocative Russian punk band Pussy Riot.

Demonstrators talk on a megaphone in support of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot during a protest in front of the Russian Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, Thursday Aug. 17, 2012. Three members of Pussy Riot were jailed in March and charged with hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after their punk performance against President Putin in MoscowÂ¬Ãs main cathedral. Russian court sentences Pussy Riot members to 2 years in prison each. (AP Photo/Polfoto/Liv Hoybye) DENMARK OUT

Police officers detain former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, a leading opposition activist, outside the court where a trial of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot is held, in Moscow, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. A Moscow judge sentenced three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison each on hooliganism charges on Friday following a trial that has drawn international outrage as an emblem of Russia’s intolerance of dissent. (AP Photo/Lisa Kessler)

Polish members of the ‘Agreement of 8th March’ group participate in a demonstration with supporters of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot in downtown Warsaw, Poland on Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. A Moscow judge has sentenced each of three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison on hooliganism charges following a trial that has drawn international outrage as an emblem of Russia’s intolerance to dissent. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Supporters of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot hold up banners reading at left: “Free Pussy Riot”, and at right a list of political prisoners, as they walk through downtown Warsaw, Poland on Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. A Moscow judge has sentenced each of three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison on hooliganism charges following a trial that has drawn international outrage as an emblem of Russia’s intolerance to dissent. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

A supporter of the punk band Pussy Riot holds a hand crafted design symbolizing the three members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot, with a sign on her wrist reading “They are your children, Russia,” outside a court in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. A Moscow judge has sentenced each of three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison on hooliganism charges following a trial that has drawn international outrage as an emblem of Russia’s intolerance to dissent. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Berlin

Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, a leading opposition activist, speaks from a police vehicle after having been detained by police outside the court where a trial of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot is held, in Moscow, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. A Moscow judge sentenced three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison each on hooliganism charges on Friday following a trial that has drawn international outrage as an emblem of Russia’s intolerance of dissent. (AP Photo/Yuri Tutov)

Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny, center, gestures as he walks outside a court in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. A Moscow judge has sentenced each of three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison on hooliganism charges following a trial that has drawn international outrage as an emblem of Russia’s intolerance to dissent. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Rob Liber, right, and Alex Goldfarb try to deliver petitions in support of Russian punk band Pussy Riot to the Russian consulate, Friday, Aug. 17, 2012 in New York. A Russian judge found three members of the provocative punk band guilty of hooliganism on Friday, in one of the most closely watched cases in recent Russian history. The judge said the three band members committed hooliganism driven by religious hatred and offending religious believers. The three were arrested in March after a guerrilla performance in Moscow’s main cathedral calling for the Virgin Mary to protect Russia against Vladimir Putin, who was elected to a new term as Russia’s president a few days later. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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Posted: 17th, August 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink

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Pussy Riot: the global protest in photos

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