Husband of Pussy Riot Band Member says Russian Trial ‘Smelled of the Middle Ages’

Pyotr Verzilov is the husband of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova who has been jailed since February along with two other band members.

Thursday the couple were able to see each other for the first time in five months.

Verzilov has been attending the band’s trial for the past couple of weeks.

He tells anchor Lisa Mullins that the proceedings reminded some people of the Spanish Inquisition.

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Lisa Mullins: And now another high profile trial in Russia, three members of the punk band Pussy Riot await a verdict in their case. The women have been jailed in Russia since February. They’re charged with hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. What they did was perform a punk prayer in a Moscow cathedral. It mocked President Vladimir Putin. That’s after the church patriarch told the faithful to vote for Putin. Pyotr Verzilov is the husband of one of the band members of Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. He is an artist and a political activist in Moscow. He says he has been denied permission to see his wife for five months until today.

Pyotr Verzilov: Well it was incredible, because after not seeing basically a very loved person for five months you feel that an hour long conversation just feels like two or three minutes, and basically we tried to discuss the most emotional, the support for the rest of the band, what’s going on with Gara, what’s going on with the family, there’s actually a million things you’re really trying to squeeze into that one hour you have.

Mullins: Now Pyotr, Gara being your daughter, four years old?

Verzilov: Yes.

Mullins: Yeah, she wasn’t with you at the time, was she?

Verzilov: No, no, she wasn’t, so she hasn’t seen her mother in five months as well.

Mullins: I wonder, Pyotr, this has been quite an ordeal for certainly the band members and the family members such as you. Can you tell us in the beginning when the band was in this cathedral, was it considered a bit of a lark at that time? I mean, how did you view it back then?

Verzilov: Well back then we thought it would be a performance that would cause dialogue, that would cause various groups to talk about it, to think about the role of the Church and the state, but obviously no one would have ever expected this kind of reaction would come from the government, and obviously no one ever imagine that this kind of public outcry would come from both inside Russia and the west.

Mullins: So there are some people who view what your wife and the rest of the band did as completely inappropriate and certainly those in the court take that view as well. In terms of the message it was supposed to send and the message that it did send out, at least to some Russians, it seems like it was a far cry from what you and the band members expected.

Verzilov: Well obviously the strong negative reaction was really really blown up by the government and this media campaign that commenced after the girls’ arrest, where they were repeatedly portrayed on Russian federal TV stations as some foreign-influenced band which has its roles in destroying Russian traditional values and tearing the country apart and starting a revolution, so after hearing all these TV reports, it’s hard for some people not to believe that the band has been doing horrible things.

Mullins: And some of those accusations came out during the trial, which has been going on for a couple of weeks now. Can you give us a couple of examples of what you heard during the trial, because you were present, correct?

Verzilov: Correct.

Mullins: Yeah.

Verzilov: Well, the trial really, really smelled of the Medieval Ages and a lot of people talked about the Spanish Inquisition, it has been incredible. It is unbelievable to imagine in the 21st century the public prosecutor in a court of law start his questioning of witnesses with the first question being “are you a real deep or Russian Orthodox religious believer,” and the second question was usually “do you follow all Orthodox traditions, fasts, and other question rituals?”

Mullins: There was some questioning of some of the witnesses, to Pussy Riot’s performance in the cathedral, they were asked whether the women were possessed?

Verzilov: Yes, they were asked whether the women were possessed, whether they were acting out “hellish orders,” and this one wonderful man who apparently just saw the action on the TV news, but he was still invited to take a stand and quote, he said he asked the girls whether they realized that hell was more real than the Moscow subway.

Mullins: What do you tell your daughter? You say she hasn’t seen her mom in five months, she’s only four years old, it must be hard to explain this to her.

Verzilov: Well at the same time watching politics is very much like a cartoon, it looks like a fairy tale, it’s black and white, we have the good guys fighting the bad guys, and the bad guys trying to imprison whoever’s fighting them. So I’ve been telling Gara, and she’s been telling people, that Putin has put mother in a cage in a castle, and we must find some clever way to bring down the walls and free her. And basically since, as I said Russian politics is very much like a children’s cartoon, it is possible for a four year old child to understand what’s happening.

Mullins: What does your wife in prison tell you? How is she doing and what does she say?

Verzilov: Well she’s acting quite heroically because obviously they’ve been, all three girls and Nadezhda have become role models for a lot of people because seeing them smile and make political speeches in court and actually really it’s amazing. I don’t think a lot of people in these brutal circumstances the girls are put in would be able to act with such power and such integrity. So basically while they are morally preparing themselves for prison, because they don’t think Putin will be ready to forgive them for what they did and forgive the huge reaction. He probably doesn’t like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Madonna really going and coming to Russia to support an anti-Putin band.

Mullins: And I wonder how you’re doing, yourself? I mean you sound extremely kind of calm and level-headed, I know there’s a lot of passion behind your views and political views as well.

Verzilov: Well I’m obviously struggling to hold on, but again we’ve been doing political art in Russia for years and you really start to realize that anything can happen to anyone in this country if you talk politics in Russia, so you prepare for everything, and you do what you have to do when something happens.

Mullins: Pyotr Verzilov, thanks very much for taking the time to talk to us.

Verzilov: Thank you.

Mullins: Pyotr Verzilov is the husband of the Russian punk musician Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, of the group Pussy Riot. She is now in jail. We’ve got a video of Pyotr Verzilov addressing supporters at theworld.org.

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Pyotr Verzilov addresses supporters in this video posted in May 2012.