Russian punk band Pussy Riot has just been given a 2-year prison sentence after already serving six months behind bars for protesting Vladimir Putin’s oppressive policies at the alter of Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral.
Check out the video (above) to see Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich perform their hooliganism song Punk Prayer and let us know if their “crime” is worthy of the punishment they received.
We respect these women so much for standing up for freedom of expression and how they CONTINUE to dissent a government they believe to be corrupt. In her closing statements to the court on August 8, Alyokhina stated:
“I am extremely angered by the phrase ├óΓé¼╦£so-called’ which the State Prosecutor uses to refer to contemporary art. I would like to draw attention to the fact that during the trial of Brodsky exactly the same phrase was used. His poems were referred to as ├óΓé¼╦£so-called poetry’, and the witnesses hadn’t even read them. Just as a number of our witnesses had not actually seen what had happened … And if that’s how it is, then for me at least this trial is just a ├óΓé¼╦£so-called’ trial. I am not afraid of you. I am not afraid of you and I am not afraid of the thinly veneered deceit of your verdict at this ├óΓé¼╦£so-called’ trial. My truth lives with me. I believe that honesty, free-speaking and the thirst for truth will make us all a little freer. We will see this come to pass.”
Read the girls’ inspiring closing statements in their entirety right here. Sources say that they walked out of the court room to a standing ovation after delivering one final verbal blow to the establishment they were protesting during the church performance for which they’ve been found guilty.
So proud! These courageous gals and the children two of them have been separated from are in our thoughts and prayers!
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