Virgin Mary Mother of God
Drive Putin Away
Drive Putin Away
With these words Russian feminist punksters Pussy Riot challenged the very heart of Russian power, and are now paying the price.
They famously performed in Moscow’s holiest cathedral in February, in a direct attack on the Russian Orthodox Church’s open support for President Putin in the last election. The video clip of their performance went global, but what gave them international notoriety was what happened next.
President Putin hit back, and the three Pussy Riot members were arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for “hooliganism”, in a case viewed by many as purely political.
Last month in Russia, reporting for SBS’s Dateline program, I met with Violetta Volkova who was, until yesterday, one of the girls’ main lawyers. She told me they’ve admitted to what they called an ethical error, but say they committed no crime.
I joined Violetta as she went to see the girls in a grim remand centre on the edge of Moscow. Unless there is a breakthrough in their appeal soon they’re due to be shifted to prison in what is called here a ‘penal colony’ on the edge Russia, where they fear their safety could be in danger.
Violetta told me that the girls could apply for presidential clemency, but they prefer captivity to losing their self-respect.
Pussy Riot has certainly grabbed international headlines, but there are other opposition activists facing similar pressure who we haven’t heard about, part of Russia’s growing wave of discontent against the President.
Authorities were hoping the jailing of Pussy Riot would send a message to Putin’s vocal opponents: step out of line and you will be punished. But, undeterred by their fate, many protesters spoke to me about their calls for change, and the persecution they’ve suffered as a result.
Last winter protesters against Putin took to the streets with marches. Sergei Fomchenkov, a key organiser of the communist Other Russia party told me that while they can march (with permission), the government refuses to allow the party to register so they’re excluded from any real political role. He said party activists are constantly harassed by the state, and alleges his wife has been targeted because of his activities.
Last month, Sergei’s wife, Taisiya, was sentenced to eight years in jail on charges of drug dealing after police allegedly found heroin during a search of her home. She claims the drugs were planted because she refused to give evidence against her husband. The sentence was double what prosecutors had demanded.
Taisiya suffers from acute diabetes and given her condition, her lawyers and her husband fear her eight year sentence is paramount to the death penalty. They believe the case is a glaring example of state persecution, and that political motives - her husband’s activities - were the real reason she was charged.
Ilya Yashin is one a new generation of Russians fighting what they see as a return to authoritarian repression. A leading activist in the liberal democratic movement Solidarnost, he’s already spent weeks in prison and faces more criminal charges. He told me that he just wanted to live in a normal, free country, but each year the screws of the political regime get tighter, and the more people become unhappy with the regime, the harsher its reaction gets.
“Putin is not an idiot. We have fresh historical examples before our eyes where regimes have fallen like houses of cards in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, the current civil war in Syria. Putin knows all too well that this apparent monolith of power can break into tiny shards like a piece of china,” he told me.
But the state’s heavy-handed response to Pussy Riot’s punk performances has achieved more than the girls could ever have dreamt: galvanizing the opposition movement, with a mixture of political protest and artistic expression.
In a dilapidated Moscow building, I met a young artist planning a controversial exhibition, inspired by the band’s treatment. The gallery owner is going to put the works on show, knowing that he risks angering those in power.
“Yes, because in today’s Russia artists society have to take some civil position and they have to speak out do they want to go back to the times when we were told what length of skirts to wear, what length of hair, what songs are good, what songs are bad, what books you should read. I think artists society should take a position,” he said.
Pussy Riot’s actions have already prompted many to think about today’s Russia and despite an increasingly harsh crackdown, it seems the protesters refuse to be silenced.
Evan Williams is a video journalist for SBS’s Dateline program. His report, ‘Punked!’, is on is on Dateline tonight, 9.30pm on SBS ONE
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