Members of Russian Punk Band Pussy Riot Plead ‘Not Guilty’ in Moscow Trial

Three members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot have pleaded not guilty to charges of hooliganism over an anti-Vladimir Putin protest at Moscow’s main cathedral.

The women were taken into custody in February after the protest at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral.

British journalist Carole Cadwalladr met three other members of the band who are in hiding. She talks about her meeting with anchor Aaron Schachter.

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Aaron Schachter: In Russia today, three member of the punk band, Pussy Riot, appeared at their trial in Moscow. The three women pleaded not guilty to charges of hooliganism. They’re being prosecuted by Russian authorities for singing a protest song inside Moscow’s main cathedral last February. The women have been in jail ever since. The song, performed at the cathedral’s altar, voiced opposition to Vladimir Putin’s return to the Russian presidency. Now, many Russians see the case as part of Putin’s crackdown on freedom of expression. Pussy Riot is larger than the three musicians on trail; it’s also a feminist punk collective in Moscow, and British journalist Carole Cadwalladr had a chance to interview three other members who’ve been in hiding since the arrest. She wrote an article about her interview in the British newspaper, The Observer, over the weekend. Carole, where did you meet these women and what did they look like?

Carole Cadwalladr: Well, it was midnight more or less and it was in this derelict factory building which had sort of been turned into art spaces and rehearsal space. We were led down this stairwell into a basement and then the door opened into this tiny little rehearsal room, I think where the bands rehearsed, and in it were three of the women wearing woolen balaclava masks, and brightly colored dresses, and brightly colored tights. There were terribly, terribly nervous to begin with and I was just really taken aback by the whole situation.

Schachter: Did you actually know who they were?

Cadwalladr: No, I mean it was very much, the whole point about Pussy Riot is to be anonymous, but they introduced themselves. They said they all have nicknames and so one of them was 25, she was called Sparrow. And then there was a 20-year-old called Squirrel, and another woman who was in her early 30s, and she was called Balaclava.

Schachter: Yeah, and you filmed the interview on video and we have a clip here in which they explain why they wear their masks.

Squirrel: When I put on my mask I do feel like a person who can do everything. Of course, I’m the same person, but this is another part of me which has more courage and which has strong feeling that what she is doing is right and she has enough power to change something.”

Cadwalladr: Is it like being a super hero then? You have your…

Squirrel: Yes, it’s like being Spider Man or something

Sparrow: Or kept woman.

Cadwalladr: Really, when you put on your masks?

Squirrel: Yeah.

Sparrow: Yeah.

Schachter: So there they are, the three super heroes. How do they live their lives?

Cadwalladr: This is why they’re so like sort of Russian super heroes because they have totally normal lives. I said what sort of jobs do you do? And they said some of us are journalists, and some of us are linguists, and some of us are in art school, but their families and friends have no idea that they’re in Pussy Riot, so it’s this totally secret thing that they do. It was to be because the FSB, the secret police who have been successors to the KGB in Russia, you know, they’re incredibly powerful and they use technology to spy on their citizens. So they have to keep it deadly secret and then they just have done these performances from time to time, these incredibly daring adventurous sort of performances. And I said to them is it like you get the call and you have to dash out home and change and put the balaclava on? And they were like no, we always have it with you just in case, kinda like Batman.

Schachter: In case you have to run into a phone booth, yeah. Obviously, they’re nervous about what the Russian authorities might do to them. Are they worried for their families? Some of them have children or the ones arrested have children, don’t they?

Cadwalladr: That’s right, so two of the women arrested have very young children. They haven’t been able to see their families or their husbands. It’s very interesting because on the one hand they’re facing these very serious charges, up to seven years in jail, but you don’t really get the sense…I mean the thing I got the sense with them, because they are so sort of young and idealistic and optimistic, they’re view is that change has to come, Putin cannot go on, the Russian regime is corrupt and it will come to the end. I just get the feeling they’re not really contemplating what would happen you know, if they do get jailed for seven years and if they do get sent to a sort of you know, horrible prison in Siberia. So and you know, they’re very excited because they’re activists, and they’ve had a greater effect on Russian politics than any Russian politician has for the last sort of 10 or 20 years. So it’s quite amazing what’s going on. I mean the thing about it is I think everybody recognizes it as a signal that if Putin is going to prepare to go after three young, lovely, cute, educated, very middle class women, he’ll go after anybody; and where that ends is a very, very scary thing.

Schachter: Carole, thank you so much.

Cadwalladr: Thank you.

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In an exclusive interview for Britain’s Observer newspaper, the three members of the punk band who went into hiding talk about their anger over Vladimir Putin’s ‘sexist regime’:

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