Anti-Putin Punk Rockers Pussy Riot to Stay in Jail, Await Trial

The all female Russian punk band Pussy Riot ran afoul of the Kremlin with protest performances.

Their impromptu show in one in Moscow’s most holy sanctuary, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, was pretty wild. They sang their tune, “Holy Mother, Throw Putin Out!”

The women were arrested in February and have been in jail since. Last week a judge ordered them to remain in custody to await their July trial.

And if they’re eventually convicted, they face up to seven years in prison.

The Moscow News Deputy Editor Natalia Antonova wrote in The Guardian last week that the women are “scapegoats for Russia’s political crisis.” She tells anchor Marco Werman why.

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Marco Werman: Here’s a Russian punk band you can’t miss, if only for it’s name, “Pussy Riot”. Last February the women of Pussy Riot staged a guerrilla performance of their song “Holy Mother, Throw Putin Out” in Moscow’s most revered church. Three members of the group were thrown in jail on hooliganism charges. We reported on that when they were arrested. Well, they’re still in prison despite calls for their release. A court decided last week they’ll remain in jail at least until their July trial. If convicted, they face up to seven years in prison. Natalia Antonova is the Deputy Editor of the Moscow News. They say the women are scapegoats for Russia’s political upheaval.

Natalia Antonova: They performed an anti-Putin song that was deemed sacrilegious and they performed it in the country’s main cathedral, and this immediately made them into kind of a lightening rod for what is happening in Russia today because they brought the fight home to the church. And this offended a lot of people that’s why they were nabbed I think and that’s they’re still in pre-trial detention, have been for some months, and they’re probably going to prison for some years. And it makes me sad, personally, but I can definitely see the logic of the people who want to put them in prison.

Werman: Right. I mean you write that you were shocked by their punk prayer in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, but you also write it doesn’t justify how they’re being treated. Why are you so forgiving and, for so many other Russians, these women have just gone too far?

Antonova: Well, I think it’s because of the history of the Orthodox Church. In the 20th Century, the Orthodox Church was severely repressed. Many members of the Church and Church officials were, of course, shot. Lots of violence and atrocities were committed against them, and also then the KGB infiltrated the Church and really made it, well, you know, it was just there to serve the state. And I think that for a lot of people, they haven’t made that switch. They don’t really see the Church as a powerful entity. They still see the Church as like a martyred entity, if an entity can be martyred. And I also think that just for some of these people, they derive a kind of weird pleasure from being up on the proverbial cross, I guess, you know? Like, to them Pussy Riot is a good excuse to say, “Look at how we’re oppressed. We’re fighting the forces of darkness here,” and it’s a performance for them and it’s a way to blow off steam.

Werman: Now, a Church official condemned what the women did. He said, “I’m convinced that this sin will be punished in this life and the next.” So there’s definitely pressure coming from the Church. These women have been arrested, so there’s pressure coming from the Kremlin. Do you think the Kremlin has been insulted by what the women did in a church?

Antonova: I don’t know. I mean I think that for anyone in the Kremlin, they have to keep up appearances, obviously, and since the Church is very much aligned with the government, obviously, they’re going to come out and condemn this. I mean the higher-ups of the Church hierarchy, they’re politicians like anyone else and they will say what needs to be said at a time like this. I mean the thing is that a lot of the lower level clergy is all for letting them go and I have it on good authority that a lot of the people within the Church who are in the higher ranks of power are also for letting them go because it’s just beginning dawn on everyone that what is happening now is that Pussy Riot are being turned into martyrs themselves.

Werman: Did the extreme behavior of Pussy Riot at Christ the Savior Church kind of give the Kremlin a political gift at a time when the Kremlin and United Russia have been under intense scrutiny?

Antonova: I think at first it certainly did because it wasn’t even the behavior in the church per se because what happened was very quick and very silly looking. It was one day later uploaded, a YouTube video with the song and they kind of had very soundtrack and they edited it so it was very dramatic. I think it gave a lot of people an excuse to say, “Well, look, if this is what the opposition has stooped to, they’re just ridiculous.” And it also led to a lot of in-fighting within the opposition ranks. A lot of people came out and said, “Look, they should not have done this.” Nowadays though, I think for most people the fact that they’ve been in jail for so long, for them it’s a real wake up call and it’s a sign that something really terrible is happening.

Werman: In your Guardian story, Natalia, you compare this episode with Pussy Riot to a Shakespearean drama. What do you mean by that?

Antonova: I think that Shakespeare had a sense for the irrational and the absurd and what we’re seeing here is also a drama that’s playing out in front of our eyes and it’s extremely irrational and absurd and no one can stop it, and it reminded me in an odd way of King Lear. In King Lear, first of all, you have the fool, obviously, who speaks the truth. And in medieval culture in Russia you also had these fools who poked fun at the government and often at the Church and they were very obscene and lewd, but they were trying to point out what they saw was wrong with the system. And also you have the “holy fools” which continue to exist in Russia today. It’s a group of people that kind of break social norms and taboos. You had cases of holy fools like running naked into a church. And no one thinks about putting these people in prison because holy fools are pointing out the absurdity of the whole situation, the absurdity of life, the absurdity of government. So this tradition is very much alive in Russia and it’s very reminiscent, of course, of the fool in King Lear who loved the king, but also criticized him and told him exactly what he thought.

Werman: Natalia Antonova, the Deputy Editor for the for the Moscow News, speaking with us about the continued detention of the Russian punk band, Pussy Riot. Natalia, thank you very much.

Antonova: You’re welcome.

Werman: This is PRI.

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