A Russian court has turned down an appeal by a member of Pussy Riot against a previous court ruling that denied her an early release. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Tag Archives: Pussy Riot
Jailed Pussy Riot punk member asks for parole
One of the jailed members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot on Wednesday asked again to be released on parole after serving almost a year in prison for a protest againt President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow church. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Madonna, Sting join 100 stars demanding Pussy Riot release
More than 100 famous musicians including Madonna, Elton John and Sting called Monday for Russia to release two members of feminist punk-rock band Pussy Riot, jailed for an anti-government protest performance. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
More On Navalny And Putin From A Forbes Stooge
By Paul Roderick Gregory, Contributor
Yesterday’s post Putin Declares Himself Dictator With The Navalny Verdict stirred up a hornet’s nest of protest from Putin’s PR machine. According to Putin’s claquers, the Navalny verdict was just. He is a crook. He commands support from only one percent of Russians (All reasonable Russians love Putin). And what can you expect from a hack writer paid generously by Forbes do to do their bidding. Besides, this fool knows nothing about Russia, despite his pretensions. One critic took umbrage at my mention of Alexandra Dukhanina, the teenage girl held under house arrest for more than a year. After all, this vicious masked (wrong, she wore a stocking cap) girl hurled a bit of asphalt at heavily armed riot police. She deserved to be hauled off in a choke hold. (See picture) Despite my unmasking by Putin supporters, I continue my commentary on the Putin-Navalny shootout. The news of the day: The prosecutor has freed Navalny on bail pending his appeal. The American press has interpreted this either as a concession to Navalny supporters (wrong), as a split within the Kremlin, or as a clever maneuver to allow Navalny to campaign unsuccessfully in the September Moscow mayoral election against the Russian KGB state’s candidate, Sobyanin. Sobyanin was appointed when Putin fired his predecessor and needs the legitimacy of being elected to office. Navalny is Putin’s first victim to have charisma, an unblemished record, and a following of millions on his blog. Khodorkovsky was an evil oligarch, and the Pussy Riot girls offended traditional Russian values. Navalny represents virgin territory for Putin’s repression machine. Perhaps the Kremlin really does not know what to do. If Putin puts Navalny in jail for five years (which means he needs another sentence at the end of the term), the Navalny legend grows. But a free Navalny will be a constant thorn in Putin’s side as he exposes the theft of billions by Putin and his associates. Allowing Navalny to contest the mayoral race may be too clever by a half. Navalny will be running against a non-Muscovite (from Siberia, no less). To keep Navalny’s vote count down, there will have to be massive fraud, and it was electoral fraud that sent hundreds of thousands to the streets in December of 2011. Instead of giving Sobyanin his electoral mandate, he will go down in history as the one who stole the September 2013 election and set off the massive street demonstrations of September and October of 2013. What is a poor Putin to do? I see that Europe has responded to the Navalny sentence with harsh condemnation. President Obama is said to be concerned and following the situation. He may even cancel his visit to Moscow, but this may have more to do with fugitive Snowden than Navalny. Believe it or not, the United States has tremendous leverage over Putin at this point. Putin has staked his reputation on the success of the winter Olympics in Sochi. The treat of a U.S. boycott could …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Notch '2nd Most Influential Person' in World
Markus ‘Notch’ Persson is currently sitting in second position on the 2013 edition of the TIME 100 Poll, putting him ahead of the likes of Barack Obama, Kim Jong Un, Jennifer Lawrence, Beyoncé and controversial pop group Pussy Riot.
In fact, the only person beating the Minecraft creator is Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, who attracted significant international attention after rising to power last year by decreeing his actions were immune from legal challenges (this has since been annulled).
Interestingly though, Morsi is only beating Notch in terms of “Absolutely” votes; the Egyptian currently has 172,770 to Notch’s 155,658. If you work out the net difference after subtracting the “No Way” votes though, Notch is actually currently sitting in first place with +137,352.
From: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/12/markus-notch-persson-currently-second-most-influential-person
Milo Rau, Pussy Riot Play Director, Hassled By Russian Officials
By The Huffington Post News Editors
MOSCOW — A Swiss theater director said Monday that Russian immigration officials, Cossacks, and several police officers barged into a Moscow theater in a bungled attempt to stop his play re-enacting the trial of punk band Pussy Riot.
Milo Rau said the officials interrupted the play at the Sakharov Center on Sunday and demanded to check his documents. They were soon followed by a group of irate Cossacks – people who claim to be descended from a once-feared Tsarist-era paramilitary group – who said they were offended by the play, and by several police officers.
Russian Officials Harass Pussy Riot Play Director
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
French actor Depardieu gets new home address in Russia
French actor Gerard Depardieu got a new permanent address in Russia — 1 Democracy Street — on Saturday, adding a final touch to his quest to get Russian citizenship.
After receiving his Russian passport from President Vladimir Putin last month, Depardieu had it stamped with the new address in Saransk, a city of 300,000 about 400 miles east of Moscow.
The actor has been at the center of a heated debate over tax exiles as France’s Socialist government proposes a hefty tax on the rich, but he has denied that he accepted the passport to escape the taxman.
Saransk is the provincial capital of the Mordovia region, home to a sprawling web of Soviet-era prison camps, where one of the members of the Pussy Riot band is serving her two-year sentence for an irreverent “punk prayer” against Putin.
He said at the ceremony that he appreciated the symbolism of his new address.
“I want to be an ambassador of democracy to the world,” he said, according to Russia Today television, which quoted him as saying that “Russia is a country with a great democracy.”
Saransk has otherwise mostly retained Soviet-era street names. Democracy Street is surrounded by Proletariat, Communist, Soviet and Bolshevik streets.
Depardieu, who has starred in films such as “Green Card” and “Cyrano de Bergerac,” enjoys broad popularity in Russia and received an enthusiastic welcome in the city. Showing off his knowledge of local history, Depardieu likened himself to Yemelyan Pugachev, the chief of a peasant rebellion in the 18th century.
“Yemelyan Pugachev was a peasant tsar who came to Kazan and to Saransk,” Depardieu said, according to Russia Today. “I am like Pugachev: I am a peasant, and I want to be tsar of Saransk.”
Depardieu was registered at an apartment belonging to the relatives of his Russian friend, the head of the Gosfilmofond state film archive, Nikola Bordachev. It is not clear if Depardieu will actually live in the apartment, and he has no requirement to spend any particular amount of time there — though he promised to visit the city often.
Depardieu’s decision to accept citizenship has earned sarcastic comments from Putin’s critics, who say the actor is a tool of Kremlin spin.
Jailed Pussy Riot Member Hospitalized
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Imprisoned Pussy Riot member hospitalized
Russia‘s prison service says one of two members of the Pussy Riot feminist punk band serving two-year sentences for an irreverent protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow‘s main cathedral has been hospitalized.
Federal Prison Service spokeswoman Kristina Belousova said Friday that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova is in a prison hospital in the province of Mordovia in western Russia, the site of her prison colony. Belousova refused to specify Tolokonnikova’s illness or comment on her condition, saying only that she has “nothing serious.”
Yekaterina Samutsevich, a band member who also was sentenced to two years in August but later released on appeal, says Tolokonnikova was suffering from headaches. Samutsevich said on Rain TV that Tolokonnikova also says she feels tired after working long hours with little rest.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Imprisoned Pussy Riot member in hospital, Russian prison service says
Russia’s prison service says one of two members of the Pussy Riot feminist punk band serving two-year sentences for an irreverent protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow‘s main cathedral has been hospitalized.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox Most Popular
Footage of anti-Putin rock band's protest banned in Russia
Footage of feminist rockers Pussy Riot‘s impromptu protest in Moscow‘s main cathedral last year has been banned in Russia.
Moscow City Court rejected band member Yekaterina Samutsevich‘s appeal to be considered an interested party in the case Wednesday, meaning a November decision banning four videos of the protest against Vladimir Putin now takes effect.
Internet providers face fines up to $3,000 if they don’t block the footage.
Pussy Riot‘s videos were banned under Russia‘s vaguely defined “extremism” law, which is supposed to restrict neo-Nazi and terrorist groups. Critics accuse the Kremlin of exploiting the law to stifle opposition and free speech.
Pussy Riot shot to worldwide notoriety last year after three band members, including Samutsevich, were sentenced to two years in prison for ‘hooliganism.’ Samutsevich was later released on appeal.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Two members of anti-Putin punk band say they have no regrets
Two imprisoned members of the Pussy Riot feminist punk band say they have no regrets about the irreverent protest against President Vladimir Putin at Moscow‘s main cathedral that landed them behind bars for two years.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina described harsh prison conditions in an interview published Wednesday in the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper and said they don’t expect clemency from authorities.
Tolokonnikova is quoted as saying that the main thing she misses at her prison colony is the ability to read feely. She says she is reading the Bible and philosophy books but that prison conditions leave little room for that.
Alekhina, who is serving her sentence in a different colony, complains of systematic violation of human rights by the prison administration.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Anti-Putin punk band member asks to defer sentence so she can raise child
A member of feminist punk band Pussy Riot asked a Russian court on Wednesday to let her serve the rest of her two-year sentence when her 5-year-old son is a teenager, arguing that separation from her child now will do irreparable psychological damage.
Maria Alekhina is petitioning the court in Berezniki, a remote Ural mountains town near where she is imprisoned, to make the extremely rare decision to let her defer her sentence until her young son is 14.
She was convicted last year along with two other band members of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for an anti-President Vladimir Putin stunt in Russia‘s main cathedral. One of the women had her sentence suspended on appeal.
Alekhina told the court on Wednesday that while she wants her sentence deferred, she refused to plead guilty.
“No one will force me to say I’m guilty — I have nothing to repent for,” she said.
Her 5-year-old son, Filipp, is going through his formative years and cannot be without her, she said.
“I’m in a situation where I have to prove here that my son needs me, which is obvious,” she said.
Several dozen supporters and journalists gathered outside the Berezniki court building, which was guarded by riot police — a rare situation for the small town.
Sentence deferrals are uncommon. In fact, there are several prison colonies for female convicts with small children who raise their babies behind bars.
In the most publicized precedent, a woman in Eastern Siberia who drove her car onto a sidewalk, killing one woman and leaving another confined to a wheelchair, had her sentence deferred in 2010 because she had just had a baby. The woman, who did not admit guilt or apologize to the families of the victims, turned out to be a daughter of a senior local official, sparking suspicions of selective justice.
The ruling in Alekhina’s case was expected later on Wednesday.
The Pussy Riot members performed a “punk prayer” at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, pleading with the Virgin Mary for deliverance from Putin. Yekaterina Samutsevich‘s sentence was suspended in October after she argued she was thrown out by guards before she could take part in the stunt.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Russian court may defer Pussy Riot member sentence
A Russian court is weighing whether an imprisoned members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot can serve the remainder of her two-year sentence when her 5-year-old son is 14.
Maria Alekhina is petitioning the court in Berezniki, a remote Ural mountains town near where she is serving her sentence. She was convicted last year along with two other band members of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for an anti-President Vladimir Putin stunt in Russia‘s main cathedral.
One of the women, Yekaterina Samutsevich, had her sentence suspended on appeal after she argued she was thrown out by guards before she could take part in the stunt.
Several dozen supporters and journalists gathered outside the Berezniki court building, which was guarded by riot police in a rare situation for the small town.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News