4. Pussy Riot

You might have heard about 3 young women accused of hooliganism and sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment this August. This scandal spread all around the world, but now it seems like everyone forgot about it, so I think it's important to write about these brave ones now.

On February 21st, 2012, less than 2 weeks before presidential election in Russia, 4 members of Russian feminist punk-rock collective "Pussy Riot" entered the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and performed their song  entitled "Punk Prayer: Mother of God Drive Putin Away". Then they made a video-clip and spread it on the Internet. Soon it became very famous and 3 members of Pussy Riot — Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina  and Yekaterina Samutsevich were arrested and charged with hooliganism. What happened next we all know.

To my mind, this story reveals Russia as a very illiberal and authoritarian country, in which the will of the president and the power of church, supporting the government, are above the law. According to Russian law, the strictest sentence for hooliganism is 15 days of arrest. Despite it, Pussy Riot were sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment. The reason for it is absolutely clear: Putin got offended by the Punk-prayer and as a powerful man he decided to revenge Pussy Riot in the most severe way.

Well, what has Putin done surprised hardly anyone. He's always abused power (take Hodorkovsky's imprisonment for instance). The most remarkable thing about Pussy Riot scandal is that it revealed the true face of patriarch Kirill and his followers. This is not about me being against the Church. On the contrary, I'm an orthodox christian and I believe that Church unites people with God. I'm speaking about Russian orthodox church as the worldly institution with its structure, affairs and so on. I'm speaking about church as a community of people with their vices and defects. Kirill says that all orthodox people have to be offended by the Punk Prayer and if they are not, they are not true orthodox.

Well, I totally disagree with what he says. To my mind, there's nothing bad in Pussy Riot's performance. And what's more, I believe that they've done a good thing. I mean, nowadays in many churches and in Cathedral of Christ the Savior in particular happen things that shouldn't be done there. For example, 1) there's a trade in churches, 2) patriarch and some other clerics did campaigning for Putin, 3) some clerics use donations for buying villas and cars instead of giving it to the church 4) Russian Orthodox Church unites with the government. And this is what Pussy Riot were protesting against. By dancing and screaming in the cathedral they tried to show people that things that shouldn't happen in church do happen there.

It's a great pity that lots of people in Russia want Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina  and Yekaterina Samutsevich to be punished severely. I saw some people writing on the Internet that they desire Pussy Riot to be staked or at least imprisonment for as many years as possible. Not only does the public think this way, but also the president Putin. As a result, during the lawsuite on the 17th of August, despite Russian laws the members of Pussy Riot were found guilty. By the way, the arguements against Pussy Riot were the rules of church councils, not the Russian Constitution. All that makes me think as if we're still living in the Middle Age.

Whether Pussy Riot was right when performing their Punk-Prayer is still a disputable question; how to think of it is the own business of all of us. But something I can say for sure: even though for some reason we got offended by something, we should try to forgive your offenders, we should try to be more mercifull and not to be violent. It is especially related to people which call themselves christians, because christianity teaches us to be mercifull.