At concerts over the weekend, singers Franz Ferdinand and
the Red Hot Chili Peppers expressed support for the Pussy Riot band members who
have been condemned to remain in a Russian jail for another nine months pending
their trial on absurd charges.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich, and Maria
Alyokhina have languished in jail since March on charges of “hooliganism motivated
by religious hatred”. Their rendering of
“Blessed Virgin, Mother Mary, Drive Putin Out!”, in Moscow ’s Christ the Saviour cathedral of, has
enraged ultra-reactionary church leaders as well as Putin.
Prosecution lawyer Mikhail Kuznetsov accused the young women
of being “the tip of an iceberg of extremists, trying to break down the 1,000
edifice of the Russian Orthodox Church by creating a schism, guiding the flock
through trickery and cunning not to God but to Satan”. The decision to keep the
trio in jail until next January was taken in a closed
hearing at the end of last week.
If convicted on trumped up charges (former KGB officer Putin will know all about those), the three face
up to seven years in prison. One of the women's lawyers, Mark Feigin, called
the ruling illegal and described it as a show of force
by the Kremlin in the face of growing calls for the women's
release. "It's not a matter of law. It's not a matter
of reason," he said.” It’s a way of saying, 'We can do what
we want.'"
The ruling has to be seen as part of a series of sinister
machinations aiming to roll back rights and freedoms so strongly asserted by
Russians in recent years, particularly during the December 2011 protests. The
last three months have seen brutal crackdowns all around the country.
When tens of thousands took to the streets on May 6 against
Putin’s election victory, police detained over 600 people and assaulted many
more. Fourteen people are charged with organising and participating in mass
riots and violence against police officers.
Repression is widespread, and not only against political
campaigners. Some 1,500 kilometres from Moscow ,
in Bashkortostan’s Prison Colony No. 4, 900 inmates are on hunger
strike in protest against the beating to death by prison employees of
Sergei Lasko on July 17.
A series of measures have targeted constitutional rights to
freedom of speech, access to information, the right of assembly and
association. On Friday just before the summer recess, the regime rushed through
legislation which close observers of the Moscow
scene are describing as an “anti-constitutional coup”.
Putin has just signed a law which means that
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who engage in political activity must
register with the Justice Ministry as “foreign agents” and print it on all
their publications – with the concomitant association of espionage and
treachery. Failing to comply can mean six months’ suspension without a court
order and up to three years in jail.
At risk are organisations like Amnesty, Transparency
International which monitors corruption and the Golos (Voice) group, which
collected and published allegations of last December’s election fraud. Golos’
deputy director Grigory Melkonyants says the law aims to make the work of NGOs
more difficult, to intimidate and to blacken their image and disgrace them for
getting money from abroad.
Of course the Russian Orthodox Church – which also receives
money from abroad - is exempted from the law.
At the weekend, veteran human rights campaigner, Ludmila
Alexeyeva celebrated her 85th birthday, saying the Russian state was “cruel to
dissidents”, in what her supporters saw as a criticism of Putin’s regime. Ever
the cynic, Putin sent her congratulations. But few are fooled by his attempts
to gloss over the truth.
The May
6 committee is appealing for the widest possible publicity and support for
its international day of action this Thursday. They believe that the fate of
dozens of innocent protesters and those already in jail is at stake.
Corinna Lotz
A World to Win secretary
