Sunday, July 8, 2012






Free Pussy Riot
By
Shawn Barron
Friday while driving to work, the radio announced that the heatwave hitting the Midwest will soon end. As it moves onto hit the Mid-Atlantic and northeast, oh what fun! Here it is 105(38 celsius), right now in Moscow however the weather is a calm and nice 75 degrees, while most Muscovites would enjoy the weather, the members of Pussy Riot are not so lucky. Who is Pussy Riot you ask? Well they are an all female punk band that is strongly against Vladimir Putin, former KGB offcial and Russia’s current dictat… I mean president.  Throughout 2011 and early 2012 Pussy Riot was known for giving flash mob style concerts throughout Moscow. Decked out on Balaclavas members of the group would storm a public venue in Moscow and bleat out their songs till police or bystanders broke it up.


This song roughly translates to “Burn Putin’s Glory,” not too bad if you ask me. On February 21st of this year the members decided to launch a similar stunt to perform their song “Blessed Mother, Deliver us from Putin.” They didn’t get very far, and were stopped after about a minute.

 The video above is actually edited together with a pre-recorded track put over it. For this stunt two of the band’s members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were arrested, they have been accused on hooliganism and insulting religion, which means they could face up to seven years in jail.
A dangerous Russian criminal!
One of her villainous co-conspirators!
How is this possible, you might ask? Well two men, Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kiril, have helped to make it so. Putin has been ruling Russia more or less unopposed for the past 12 years, and funneling money out of it for some time. According a recent Al-Jazeera documentary Putin’s watches alone are worth more than his annual salary. Never a fan of criticism, Putin has allied himself with the Orthodox Church, and its rather corrupt leader Patriarch Kirill. The Patriarch has been accused of hiding money as well as possessing enormous property holdings outside of Russia.
After being photographed wearing a 30K watch the Patriarch's people airbrushed out the watch,
but not it's reflection.
The church has been urging for the jailing of Pussy riot since the February incident, they’ve also worked to ban abortion, and were one of the forces that had the St. Petersburg gay pride parade banned recently. Until the collapse of the Soviet Union, feminism and gay rights, simply didn’t exist for many most of Eastern Europe. While tremendous changes have occurred in these societies over the past two decades it seems that patriarchy and tyranny die-hard. Russia’s leaders still pine for the old days, when criticizing authority was unthinkable.
Truly only a traitorous monster would want to criticize this man!
People in modern, internet-connected societies, frequently and great vocalization criticize leaders. This is a fact Putin and many like him still can’t wrap their head around.

According to a later news broadcast by a network loyal to Putin, the audience was actual booing the American fighter who had just lost. It’s unlikely that Putin will grant a last minute pardon to the members of Pussy Riot, meaning that they very well could serve their full term. So until major changes happen in Russia free Pussy Riot and maybe we can all experience a day of Россия без Путина(Russia without Putin)!
07/08/12 

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