Pussy Riot: will Vladimir Putin regret taking on Russia's cool punks? | World news | The Guardian Close This article is 4 years old For two very full, very long days in Moscow, I have talked constantly to people about Pussy Riot . About how, back in February, three young women from a feminist punk-rock band sang a song in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. How they were arrested, imprisoned, refused bail, and now face up to seven years in jail. How the orders for this seem to have come right from the very top of the Russian government. And how their trial – starting tomorrow – seems certain to become a defining moment in Putin's political career. It is, many people say (practically everybody, in fact), a moment when Russia's future is, in some as yet undetermined way, being decided. At 9pm on Thursday night, I'm at a rally of a couple of thousand anti-government protesters, hearing Pussy Riot's name being chanted in the crowd, and I think I have a grasp of the story. It's an astonishing tale of how three young women have brought Putin his biggest political headache yet. A story about art versus power. Of civil society versus church and state.

Or as one film-maker who's documenting it says, "punks versus Putin". (He goes on to say, "It's Crime and Punishment, basically, but there's also a band in jail so it's a bit like The Monkees. Or a really warped Beatles film.") I think I have it sort-of clear, and then three hours later, I'm led into a basement in an industrial art space and the story untangles. It becomes not just astonishing but absurd. Because here are Pussy Riot: in their balaclavas and brightly coloured dresses and tights, sitting cross-legged on the floor of a tiny, hot, brightly lit rehearsal room. They're not the three young women in jail: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29 – or Nadia, Masha and Katya, as they're known. Nobody has been allowed to see them. Not their husbands, families or friends. But Pussy Riot is not just three women. It's a collective of "more than 10" women, including two others who performed in the cathedral and are still at large.

And all of them have vanished since the arrests. They've all gone to ground. This isn't surprising given the danger they're in. They've spent five months in hiding, waiting to see if they'll be arrested too. And this is their first interview for western media. Although they're not the imprisoned women, they don't have to be. That's the intention of the balaclavas – they're meant to be anonymous, indivisible, representative. It doesn't matter which of them got arrested. That's the point – that they're not individuals, they're an idea. And that's the thing that has gripped Russia and caught the attention of the rest of the world, too: that the Russian government has gone and arrested an idea and is prosecuting through the courts with a vindictiveness the Russian people haven't before seen. An idea perpetrated by three young, educated, middle-class women, or devushki (girls), as the Russians call them. And it's this that's the shock walking into the room. They're so young. So smiley. So nervous and bashful and embarrassed at the attention and not sure how to sit, or quite what they should and shouldn't say.

Pussy Riot aren't just the coolest revolutionaries you're ever likely to meet. They're also the nicest. They're the daughters that any parent would be proud to have. Smart, funny, sensitive, not afraid to stand up for their beliefs. One of them makes a point of telling me how "kindness" is an important part of their ideology. They have also done more to expose the moral bankruptcy of the Putin regime than probably anybody else. No politician, nor journalist, nor opposition figure, nor public personality has created quite this much fuss. Nor sparked such potentially significant debate. The most amazing thing of all, perhaps – more amazing even than calling themselves feminists in the land women's rights forgot – is that they've done it with art. How does that feel? "It feels like a unique position to be in, but at the same time it's really scary. Because it's a great responsibility. Because we are not only doing it for us, we're doing it for society," says the one called Squirrel. Most amazingly of all, perhaps, they've done it with art and rock music. The sledgehammer that they've used to take on the great might of the Russian state? That would be the colourful clothes they dressed up in.

The jumping up and down they did. The funny lyrics they wrote. The loud songs they sang. That brilliant, witty, killer name. The outfits are cartoonish, with bright, primary colours, but the masks aren't just there to shield their faces from recognition – their anonymity is both symbolic and integral to their entire artistic vision. They all have nicknames which, they say, they swap at random: Sparrow, who is 22, Balaclava, who is by some way the eldest at 33, and Squirrel, who is just 20 years old. "It means that really everybody can be Pussy Riot… we just show people what the people can do," says Sparrow. "We show the brutal and cruel side of the government," says Squirrel. "We don't do something illegal. It's not illegal, singing and saying what you think." Sparrow is painfully shy and self-conscious at first. She is worried, especially that her English isn't good enough – that she won't be able to express herself properly – and she explains how she feels when she puts on the balaclava. "When I'm in a mask I feel a little bit like a superhero and maybe feel more power.

I feel really brave, I believe that I can do everything and I believe that I can change the situation." Balaclava interrupts. "I disagree. We are not superwomen – we are pretty ordinary women and our goal is that all women in Russia can become like this without masks." The film battery goes at that moment. And as Khristina Narizhnaya, the Moscow-based journalist who's filming the interview, changes the battery, they collapse theatrically on the floor, laughing and breathing heavy sighs of relief. "It's so strange," says Sparrow. "Seeing Pussy Riot in the papers, and on the news and the internet. You have friends saying, 'Did you see the last action?' And you have to say, 'Yes I saw it on TV'." Do your parents know? "No!" says Squirrel. "My dad would kill me!" The details are so brilliant. Do you get a call, I ask, when you're out shopping and you have to dash home and put on your balaclava? "No," says Sparrow.

"It's like Batman: you always have it with you, just in case." Just before I went to meet Pussy Riot, I'd been listening to an interview I'd done with Ilya Oskolkov-Tsentsiper, the co-founder of the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, a cultured and sophisticated man who's worked with Rem Koolhaas to devise a programme to train a generation of young people to change the physical and social landscape of the city, and whose conversation is steeped in Russian history. It's an anxious time, he was saying. "I cannot think about anything else. I am literally thinking about it all the time. It's interesting that in a country that is so full of horrible things – bad and unjust and unfair things – the symbolism of this really stands out. Russian radical feminist group Pussy Riot stage a protest against Vladimir Putin’s policies at Moscow’s Red Square last January. Photograph: Denis Sinyakov/Reuters "Because they are so young. Because they have children. Because what they have done is so unimportant and silly and has all of a sudden become so huge because of this disproportionate reaction.

Because it touches so strangely on so many things, and this is where it becomes an event of almost historic proportions. It touches everything: the church and the state, believers and non-believers, the judge and the tsar, and this Russian thing that never ever ends." There's so much history in Moscow. The streets are named after writers, the metro stations revolutionaries. On practically every corner, there's a statue. Earlier in the day, I'd met Pyotr Verzilov, Nadia's husband, at a statue of Engels, near the metro station named after Kropotkin – the anarchist. The day before, the country's most influential art critic, under a bronze Pushkin. Hanging about outside the metro station Kurskaya on the way to meet the women, I glance up and notice its old name still chiselled on the roof: Metropolitan Station VI Lenin. It's a city of ghosts and echoes, where a mummified body of a revolutionary lies in a windowless bunker next to a curlicued palace built by the tsars he had plotted to overthrow. And which is now inhabited by a man who once worked for the KGB.

Russia's leaders have always understood the potency of the visual imagery of power. Of hammers and sickles. Of nuclear warheads and a well-muscled man doing manly, bare-chested outdoor pursuits. And, in the latest instance: of five young women in brightly coloured balaclavas jumping up and down in the symbolic heart of the Russian state: Red Square. It was this "action" in January – the fourth of the five they've done so far – that first brought them to the world's attention. They formed just after Medvedev had announced that Putin would return once again as president in November. And people realised that Russia was becoming, quite simply, a dictatorship. Miriam Elder, the Guardian's Moscow correspondent, who has covered the case assiduously, met a group of them shortly afterwards, one of the very few journalists to have interviewed them. "They were just very determined. Very purposeful. Everybody was so angry at that time. But what came across was just how educated they were. How well thought out their ideas were. They quoted everybody from Simone de Beauvoir to the Ramones. It wasn't just a silly prank.

There was a real message behind it." Their concert in Red Square, which happened amid the huge public demonstrations that rocked Moscow last winter in the lead up to the elections, was so brilliant, so visually striking, so blatantly cheeky. But it was carried out at such great personal risk. A risk that became even more acute after they performed inside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. A performance that led to three imprisoned women who could be jailed for up to seven years. Two of them – Nadia and Masha – have young children who they may not see grow up. Did they have any idea of how much trouble they might get themselves in, I ask Elder. "No, I don't think so," she says. "Though some of the things that they said slightly haunt me. Almost the last thing I said was something like, 'Aren't you scared of being arrested?' It was at the time when hundreds of people were being arrested. And one of them said, 'No, they're nicer to women, and when they throw you in the police van, you meet really cool people'. "With hindsight, it seems obvious that something would happen to them." What do you mean? "It wasn't just performance art.

It's taken things to a whole different level." And it's that level that is so scary, that has scared so many people across Russia. "The Khodorkovsky trial [former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky who is now in jail] demonstrated that Putin would go after the oligarchs," says Pyotr Verzilov. It sent a very clear, unmistakable message to the oligarchs. And what the Pussy Riot trial is showing is that they'll go after anybody. Nobody is safe." He's become the group's de facto spokesman, a slightly difficult position, given that they very carefully choose not "to assign roles" and that a strong feminist (and in Russia, utterly alien) message is at the heart of their work. He's also a key part of the creative team. He told me about the morning that he and Nadia, his wife, were arrested. "These men in suits with guns came running towards us shouting. There were around 25-30 of them shouting 'This is the FSB' and we were thrown to the floor. "They were all wearing these expensive suits. You never see police officers looking as sophisticated as this.

And then they transferred us to an expensive-looking SUV and we were taken to a police station and separated. Eight investigators arrived and we waited hours and then, from around 3-8am, I was interrogated." Pyotr – or Peter as he calls himself to foreigners – was released. Nadia wasn't. A lot of people have suggested it's because Verzilov, who went to high school in Canada and holds dual Russian-Canadian citizenship, would pose an international problem that the Russian government doesn't want to face. "But I don't think it's that," he says. "It's just 'where do you stop?' If they try the other girls, if they try me, how many people would they try? The camera operator who was there? The AFP journalist? Where do you stop? Once you start arresting innocent people – and the police came to the church right after it happened and found no crime had been committed – where do you draw the line? Do you just start arresting everybody?" The crime in question occurred on 21 February and took precisely 51 seconds.

The five women and a film team, plus various supporters and a couple of journalists, entered the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, jumped over a gold rail, stood on the steps of the pulpit (a place where only men may stand) and performed the opening bars of a punk song. You can watch it on YouTube . It starts out as a religious hymn, then mutates into something Sex Pistols-esque, the women kneeling, genuflecting, crossing themselves, jumping up and down and, after a few seconds, being intercepted by security guards and led away. It's not hard to see why religious believers would be shocked and offended. There's an elderly startled nun clearly visible in the video, and even if you're not a believer, the lack of respect accorded a place of worship is still pretty shocking. After being ejected by cathedral guards, "the police came and they didn't even open a case," says Verzilov.

"It was only after it appeared on YouTube under the name 'Virgin Mary Chuck Out Putin' and got all this attention – Patriarch Kirill watched it and, so the investigators told us, rang Putin and the head of the Moscow police – that it became this great big deal, that they decided that it was some sort of crime." In the press, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, called it "blasphemous", saying that the church was "under attack" and that "the devil has laughed at us". The church's spokesman, Vsevolod Chaplin, said: "God condemns what they've done. I'm convinced that this sin will be punished in this life and the next, God revealed this to me just like he revealed the gospels to the church. There's only one way out: repentance." A warrant was issued for "hooliganism" and, two weeks later, the three women and Verzilov were arrested. Nothing has been usual about the case.

Nikolai Polozov, one of their lawyers, says that there's been a blatant disregard for due process: the imprisonment without trial; the refusal of bail; the lack of time they have to prepare the case. Amnesty International has declared them Prisoners of Conscience. And Polozov says that "several key events point to the fact that the Kremlin is involved", not least blanket coverage on federal TV channels designed "to ruin the reputation of my defendants. Only one person, or people close to him, can do that." In another extreme step, the trial, which starts tomorrow, will be streamed live on the internet. It's a move designed to give the appearance of transparency, Polozov says, but will actually have the reverse effect, allowing them to exclude press from the very small courtroom, and at contentious moments to simply "lose the feed". What's not in dispute is that Pussy Riot did cause offence. But that was the point. "The church of Christ the Saviour was chosen for very specific, symbolic reasons," says Verzilov. "It was blown up by Stalin to show his power against the church and in the 60s was turned into a swimming pool." And then the Soviet Union collapsed.

"And Moscow's first post-Soviet mayor, Luzhkov, decided to rebuild the cathedral. At that time, in the early 90s, the most successful commercial enterprise in the country was organised crime, and he said I need $1bn and whoever doesn't pay is going to jail. "It became a very important governmental symbol. And it's supposed to be the most sacred place in Russia. But it's very commercialised: there's a massive parking garage under it, and banqueting halls you can hire out for $10,000 a day. "More than this, though, is how the church has started to act as if it is the propaganda wing of the government. Before the election, Patriarch Kirill said that it was 'un-Christian' to demonstrate. And then he said that Putin had been placed at the head of the government 'by God'. No one was talking about this before. And now everybody is." Everybody is talking about it.

Andrei Yerofeyev, one of the most respected curators of modern art in Russia, who in 2010 was himself tried (and found guilty) on charges of inciting religious and ethnic hatred by staging a show called Forbidden Art, compares it to Iran. To Saudi Arabia. He sees it, as many do, as the beginnings of a Christian fundamentalism. "They want to control culture. They want to control everything. People have great respect for the church. They fought the communists. The priests were persecuted. But this trial? It shows that the church is untouchable." Others have called it Russia's Dreyfus affair. The anti-Pussy Riot propaganda on the main government-run TV channels (ie all of them) has been relentless. The opinion voiced by one of the prosecution lawyers a telling illustration of how they've been portrayed. The women are being controlled by "the global government", they say, who ultimately are themselves controlled "by Satan". But the tide is turning. It's the severity of the penalty that has shocked most Russians. Even conservative, religious Russians who thought their act was silly or offensive. Very few defendants are imprisoned pre-trial. Certainly not ones with young children accused of non-violent crimes.

More than 200 well-known public people signed an open letter condemning the trial, including many Putin supporters, and another 41,000 rank-and-file Russians have added their signatures. And when I go to take a look around the cathedral and speak to some middle-aged women in headscarves leaving after prayers, they all think it was awful, disrespectful, inappropriate and deserving of punishment. But even the most hardline of them, who thinks they should be punished for their other "crimes" (their previous performances), turns down the corner of her mouth and shakes her head when Khristina translates my question about the possible seven-year sentence. And even I, with my odd scrags of Russian, understand her reply. "Trudna," she keeps on saying. "Ne znayo." It's difficult. I don't know. The arrested members of Pussy Riot at a district court hearing on 23 July. Photograph: Mudrats Alexandra/Corbis Just a few hours before meeting Pussy Riot, I'd seen a very small example of the Russian state's apparatus of repression. The massed police vans and armoured vehicles that were parked in streets around where the demo was scheduled to take place.

The phalanxes of officers marching through a neighbouring square. Earlier that day, I'd arranged to meet Pyotr Verzilov at a cafe. He doesn't show up. I text. I call. He carries two mobiles with him at all times and is constantly taking calls from TV stations, journalists and campaigners. "We're trying to get Sting to wear a Pussy Riot T-shirt at his concert tonight," he'd told me the day before. (Sting did not wear the T-shirt but he did call for the band's release). Franz Ferdinand and Red Hot Chili Peppers had both already come out in support. And they were "reaching out to Madonna", who's due to play in Moscow next month. He's engaged in all aspects of a modern political campaign: monitoring Twitter streams, tweeting news, updating the Facebook site. I assume something has come up. Before I arrive in Moscow, I talk at length to two British documentary makers who have been filming the trial, and one of them warns me to "be prepared to do a lot of waiting. They're just under so much pressure". He'd also told me that Verzilov "will blow your head off. It's phenomenal that he's only 25.

It's just the most incredible story. It's just so rock'n'roll. It really is punk. What they did was as shocking as what the Sex Pistols did. Maybe more so. Because it was against this dictator. It's punks against Putin." It is also so incredibly visual: the women sit in a cage in the middle of the court. They're all attractive, "but Nadia, she looks like she's in a perfume ad or something. They're all so cool, but you should see Nadia walk into court in her handcuffs. It's an incredible sight. She's like Simone de Beauvoir. I'm romanticising a bit, but she's Simone de Beauvoir. And Peter is Russia's Sartre." And there's a reason Verzilov misses my appointment, it transpires. An hour or so later, I get a text. "Carole! I was suddenly taken today at 8.30am to the investigative committee by a team of officers and they took my phone and all my personal things." When we finally meet, he shrugs it off, though when I take him to a cafe, he eats like a horse. "You look tired," I say.

"Well, you know, four hours of interrogation…" What sort of questions do they ask. "You know. When did you meet with foreign governments?" Do they really believe that? "They try very hard to make the Russian public believe that." He wants to know what everyone has been saying to me. What did Ekaterina Degot say, he asks? She's probably Russia's most influential art critic. "She said what you were doing was incredible. That it's going to change Russian history. That there is no question that what you are doing is art and that no Russian artist has brought about this much change, ever," I say. And Artemy Troitsky, Russia's foremost rock critic? "That three girls might be the ones to break the spine of a tyrant." He looks pleased.

But then, Pussy Riot are musicians and artists, and some are members of a group called Voina, Russia's most outrageous performance artists, whose work included painting a massive penis on a bridge opposite the FSB headquarters in St Petersburg ("Dick Captured by FSB"), and staging an orgy in a museum on the eve of Medvedev's election in 2008 ("Fuck for the Heir Puppy Bear"), and who captured the imagination of Banksy among others – he sent £80,000 to support them when two of their members were arrested and imprisoned. But they're activists first and foremost. "How is Peter?" Ekaterina Degot asks me. Worried for Nadia, I say, and their four-year-old daughter, Gera. But not displeased about the situation. "I understand this well. They have the mentality of activists. The more attention they get the better it is. The more effective they are being." Degot was on the jury that awarded Voina the biggest prize in Russian art. And Katya, one of the imprisoned women, is a student of hers. What will happen next, I ask her? "I don't know. But it can't continue. Putin can't continue.

In a year, I am sure we will see a different country, though I'm not sure it will be a better country." But it's the words of Ilya Oskolkov-Tsentsiper, the co-founder of the Strelka, that echo most in my ears. In Russian history, he says, there's an old tradition of mad, half-witted saints. "This idea that it's only the crazy, half-witted fool who can tell the truth to the nation and to power. There is something that all Russians know even if they're not aware of it. In Russia, you never call it St Basil's Cathedral, it's Vasily Blazhenny, Vassily the Mad. And this is what these girls are. The truth-tellers to the Russian nation." We're sitting at a table in Strelka while he tells me this, a beautifully designed space right opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, scene of the crime. "I remember swimming in that pool as a child. And sometimes, I have a feeling that in another 70 years the pool will have to be restored.

And we will live through this endless cycle of destroying the churches and then rebuilding them." It's extraordinary what Pussy Riot have done. How they have taken feminism to one of the most macho countries on Earth. How they have revealed the faultlines at the heart of the Russian state, the moral bankruptcy of the Putin regime. It's hard to reconcile that with the women I met, with their skinny shoulders and thin wrists and lack of any weaponry bar guts and wit. The word absurd has been worn thin with use, but there's no other way to describe what is happening in Russia today. "Putin is scared of us, can you imagine?" says Squirrel. "Scared of girls." "It was just a prayer. A very special prayer," says Sparrow. "The most important dictator, Putin, is really afraid of people," says Squirrel. More specifically, he's afraid of Pussy Riot.

Afraid of a bunch of young, positive, optimistic women unafraid to speak their minds." The Clueless actor appeals to Vladimir Putin over Pussy Riot's right to a vegan prison diet Published: 16 Aug 2012 Russian leader accused of orchestrating case against trio found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred Published: 17 Aug 2012 Senior Russian official uses Twitter to attack singer who stated support for jailed feminist punk band during Moscow concert Published: 9 Aug 2012 Following whipping, anti-Putin punk band posts new video criticizing Sochi Games | Fox News Following whipping, anti-Putin punk band posts new video criticizing Sochi Games Published February 20, 2014 Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Email Print Russian punk band Pussy Riot ended their time in Sochi Thursday by releasing a video bashing the Olympics and President Vladimir Putin, a day after band members were whipped by militia members in an attack the International Olympic Committee called “very unsettling.” The band has been filming in Sochi since Sunday and has had violent run-ins with authorities.

They have been detained several times, and on Wednesday militia members attacked the group with horsewhips as they tried to perform under an Olympic sign. “Cossacks attacked Pussy Riot, beat us with whips and sprayed a lot of pepper gas at us," band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova posted on Twitter Wednesday, according to Reuters . Maria Alekhina, another member of the group, tweeted photographs of blood dripping down the face of a supporter after the whipping. Other photos showed red marks across Tolokonnikova's chest. Konstantin Perenizhko, a deputy to the regional Cossack military leader, described the performance as a “some sort of a cheap provocation,” Reuters reports. On Thursday, band members said they were returning to Moscow to attend the verdicts in a trial of 20 people arrested after clashes on the eve of Putin's inauguration to a third term in 2012. The performance-art collective, made up of a loose grouping of feminists, has called for a boycott of the Sochi Olympics, arguing that Putin has exceeded his authority and is restricting human rights.

Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina spent nearly two years in prison on charges of hooliganism for their protest in Moscow's main cathedral in 2012. Pussy Riot's new video, called "Putin will teach you how to love the motherland", was posted on YouTube and features a song and footage of the band's protests. The band described some of its Sochi experience in the song: "Sochi locked down/the Olympus under surveillance/Of guns and crowds of cops." Members told a news conference their treatment in Sochi is symptomatic of dissent being stifled in Russia. "The Olympics has turned the police state into a total police state and the authoritarian regime into a totalitarian regime with preventive arrests," Tolokonnikova said. "The Olympics has created an environment of sweeping violations of human rights in Russia. We are banned from speaking out here." Tolokonnikova described the band's performances throughout the city since Sunday as a form of "active boycott" of the games. Madonna, the band's highest-profile fan, tweeted on Thursday: "Are you kidding me?

Are the police in Russia actually whipping Pussy Riot for making music on the streets?" As they gave the news conference in a Sochi park, Pussy Riot was surrounded by pro-Kremlin activists, who interrupted speakers. Since their release in December, Tolokonnikova and Alekhina have avoided public performances and plunged into activism. They set up a group to defend prisoners' rights and have been publicizing alleged abuse in Russian prisons. A masked Pussy Riot member said the band had set out to attract international attention to the plight of defendants in a trial she described as "the biggest disgrace of modern Russia." Twenty people were arrested after clashes between police and demonstrators in May 2012 on Bolotnaya Square on the eve of Putin's inauguration to a third term as Russia's president. They are now on trial, and some of them face up to 10 years in prison if convicted for the protest. The band is due to attend the trial verdict in the Bolotnaya trial on Friday morning. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Advertisement Russia's female punk band protesters jailed for two years | Reuters Fri Aug 17, 2012 | 4:22 PM EDT Russia's female punk band protesters jailed for two years By Timothy Heritage and Maria Tsvetkova | MOSCOW MOSCOW Three women from the Russian punk band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in jail on Friday for staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin in a church, a ruling supporters described as his "personal revenge". The group's backers burst into chants of "Shame" outside the Moscow courthouse and said the case showed Putin was cracking down on dissent in his new six-year term as president. Dozens were detained by police when scuffles broke out. The United States and the European Union condemned the sentence as disproportionate and asked for it to be reviewed, although state prosecutors had demanded a three-year jail term and the maximum sentence possible was seven years. But while the women have support abroad, where their case has been taken up by a long list of celebrities including Madonna, Paul McCartney and Sting, opinion polls show few Russians sympathize with them.

"The girls' actions were sacrilegious, blasphemous and broke the church's rules," Judge Marina Syrova told the court as she spent three hours reading the verdict while the women stood watching in handcuffs inside a glass courtroom cage. She declared all three guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, saying they had deliberately offended Russian Orthodox believers by storming the altar of Moscow's main cathedral in February to belt out a "punk prayer" deriding Putin. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Marina Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, giggled as the judge read out the sentences one by one, but portrayed themselves as victims of Soviet-style persecution during the trial that began on July 30. They have already been in jail for about five months, meaning they will serve another 19, and could be released if Putin were to pardon them. The Orthodox Church hinted it would not oppose such a move by appealing, belatedly, for mercy.

Pussy Riot took on two powerful state institutions at once when they burst into Moscow's golden-domed Christ the Saviour Cathedral wearing bright ski masks, tights and short skirts to protest against Putin's close ties with the Church. The judge said the three women had "committed an act of hooliganism, a gross violation of public order showing obvious disrespect for society." She rejected their argument that they had no intention of offending Russian Orthodox believers. It became one of Russia's most high-profile trials since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and Putin's critics said it put the 59-year-old Kremlin leader's policies in the dock. Opponents depicted it as part of a crackdown by the ex-KGB spy against a protest movement that took off over the winter, attracting what witnesses said were crowds of up to 100,000 people in Moscow to oppose his return to power. "They are in jail because it is Putin's personal revenge," Alexei Navalny, one of the organizers of the protests, said outside the court. "This verdict was written by Vladimir Putin." A police source told Itar-Tass news agency 50 people had been detained near the court when scuffles broke out.

Among them were Sergei Udaltsov, a leftist opposition leader, and Garry Kasparov, a Putin critic and former world chess champion. But there was no sign of the opposition taking to the streets in anger. Opposition leaders plan a small gathering in Moscow on Sunday, the anniversary of a failed coup shortly before the Soviet Union fell in 1991, but the next big anti-Putin rally is not planned until September 15. Putin's spokesman did not immediately comment on the verdict but the president's supporters said before the trial that he would have no influence on the court's decision. Although Pussy Riot have never made a record or had a hit song, foreign singers have led the campaign for the trio's release. Madonna performed in Moscow with "PUSSY RIOT" painted on her back and wearing a ski mask in solidarity. But a poll of Russians released by the independent Levada research group showed only 6 percent sympathized with the women and 51 percent found nothing good about them or felt irritation or hostility. The rest could not say or were indifferent.

Valentina Ivanova, 60, a retired doctor, said outside the courtroom: "What they did showed disrespect towards everything, and towards believers first of all." CHURCH CALLS FOR MERCY Putin, who returned to the presidency for a third term on May 7 after a four-year spell as prime minister, had said the women did "nothing good" but should not be judged too harshly. The trio's defense lawyers said they would appeal. The Church issued a statement condemning the women's actions but urged the state to show mercy "within the framework of the law". That appeared to signal that the Church would back a pardon or reduced sentence, although the women would be expected to admit guilt if they sought a pardon. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington was concerned about the "disproportionate sentences ... and the negative impact on freedom of expression in Russia", and urged Russian authorities "to review this case". EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the sentence called into question Russia's respect for the "obligations of fair, transparent, and independent legal process".

In protests outside Russia in support of Pussy Riot, a bare-chested feminist activist took a chainsaw to a wooden cross bearing a figure of Christ in Kiev. In Bulgaria, sympathizers put Pussy Riot-style masks on statues at a Soviet Army monument. Opposition leaders say Putin will not ease up on opponents in his new term. Parliament has already rushed through laws increasing fines for protesters, tightening controls on the Internet, and imposing stricter rules on defamation. Gay rights suffered a blow in Moscow when an appeals court upheld a ruling rejecting applications from activists to hold a gay rights march each year for the next 100 years. Anti-gay activists later sued Madonna for $10 million in St Petersburg, saying she insulted their feelings by speaking out for gay rights there last week.

(Additional reporting by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya, Alissa de Carbonnel, Thomas Grove and Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Olzhas Auyezov in Kiev; Editing by Alastair Macdonald, Will Waterman and Giles Elgood) ADVERTISEMENT 1/14 Members of the female punk band ''Pussy Riot'' (R-L) Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina sit in a glass-walled cage after a court hearing in Moscow, August 17, 2012. Reuters/Maxim Shemetov + 2/14 Members of the female punk band ''Pussy Riot'' (R-L) Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich sit in a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Moscow, August 17, 2012. A Russian judge delivers a verdict on Friday against three members of the Pussy Riot punk band whose trial for staging an anti-Kremlin protest in a church has provoked an international outcry against President Vladimir Putin.

Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin + 3/14 New York Police Department officers arrest a woman demonstrating in solidarity with the Russian punk band Pussy Riot in front of the Russian Consulate in New York August 17, 2012. Reuters/Lucas Jackson + 4/14 Police detain a supporter of the female punk band ''Pussy Riot'' for violation of law and order in Moscow, August 17, 2012. Reuters/Maxim Shemetov + 5/14 Protestors gather outside the Russian Consulate General building during a demonstration of support for the female Russian female punk band Pussy Riot in Edinburgh, Scotland August 17, 2012. Reuters/David Moir + 6/14 Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (C), a member of the female punk band ''Pussy Riot'', is escorted by police before a court hearing in Moscow August 17, 2012. Reuters/Tatyana Makeyeva + 7/14 A masked man attends a rally, in support of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, in Sydney August 17, 2012.

Reuters/Daniel Munoz + 8/14 Maria Alyokhina (C), a member of the female punk band ''Pussy Riot'', is escorted by police before a court hearing in Moscow, August 17, 2012. Reuters/Tatyana Makeyeva + 9/14 Yekaterina Samutsevich (R), a member of the female punk band ''Pussy Riot'', is escorted by police before a court hearing in Moscow, August 17, 2012. Reuters/Tatyana Makeyeva + 10/14 Yekaterina Samutsevich, a member of the female punk band ''Pussy Riot'', is escorted by police before a court hearing in Moscow, August 17, 2012. Reuters/Tatyana Makeyeva + 11/14 A woman plays drums during a rally, in support of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, in Sydney August 17, 2012.

Reuters/Daniel Munoz + 12/14 Protesters march through midtown Manhattan while demonstrating in solidarity with the Russian punk band Pussy Riot in New York August 17, 2012. Reuters/Brendan McDermid + 13/14 New York Police Department officers arrest a woman demonstrating in solidarity with the Russian punk band Pussy Riot in front of the Russian Consulate in New York August 17, 2012. Reuters/Lucas Jackson + 14/14 Activists wear masks with a tape pasted over their mouths in support of members of the female punk band Pussy Riot and during a protest rally in front of the Russian Embassy in Warsaw August 17, 2012. Reuters/Kacper Pempel + Russian court imprisons Pussy Riot band members on hooliganism charges - CNN.com Russian court imprisons Pussy Riot band members on hooliganism charges By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN Updated 11:24 AM ET, Sat August 18, 2012 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

Photos: Show of support for Pussy Riot Women in waiting – Pussy Riot band members Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Moscow on Friday August 17. Hide Caption 1 of 7 Photos: Show of support for Pussy Riot Feminist solidarity – The court case has sparked demonstrations of support across Europe and the U.S. An activist from feminist group Femen cuts down an Orthodox cross in Ukraine, erected in memory of victims of political oppression, in a show of solidarity with the punk band. Hide Caption 2 of 7 Photos: Show of support for Pussy Riot Writing on the wall? – A man walks past pro-Pussy Riot graffiti in Moscow. Band members were charged after screaming "Mother Mary please drive Putin away" during a concert inside Christ Savior Cathedral, in February. Hide Caption 3 of 7 Photos: Show of support for Pussy Riot Colorful support – Campaigners wear the band's trademark colorful balaclavas in a demonstration outside the Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow.

Hide Caption 4 of 7 Photos: Show of support for Pussy Riot Political protest – Pro-Pussy Riot demonstrators gather in St. Petersburg. Putin criticized the band's action earlier this month but said they should not be judged "too harshly," according to state-run news agency RIA Novosti. Hide Caption 5 of 7 Photos: Show of support for Pussy Riot Cagey subject – Supporters sit locked in a mock defendants cage outside a Moscow court. The band members have been charged with hooliganism aimed at "inciting religious hatred." Hide Caption 6 of 7 Photos: Show of support for Pussy Riot Pussy Riot masks – Demonstrators wear Pussy Riot-style masks outside a Moscow court. Singer Madonna also donned one of the masks during a recent gig in the city, telling the audience: "Everyone has the right to free speech, everywhere in the world.

Maria, Katya, Nadia, I pray for you." Hide Caption EU foreign policy chief says case adds to "upsurge in politically motivated intimidation" The three women were sentenced to two years' imprisonment for hooliganism They sang a song critical of President Vladimir Putin in a protest at a Moscow cathedral Arrests were made outside court as the verdict was delivered, state media reported Three members of Russian female punk rock band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in prison Friday after they were found guilty of hooliganism for performing a song critical of President Vladimir Putin in a church. The five months they have spent in detention since their arrests in March count toward the sentence, Judge Marina Sirovaya said. The judge said the charges against the three young women -- Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich -- had been proved by witnesses and the facts. The Pussy Riot members were charged after screaming, "Mother Mary, please drive Putin away," in a protest act in February inside Christ Savior Cathedral, one of Moscow's grandest houses of worship.

MUST WATCH Female punk band mocks Putin, is jailed 02:55 Sirovaya rejected the women's defense that they were acting from political motives, ruling that they had intended to insult the Russian Orthodox Church and undermine public order. However, the fact that two of them have young children was a mitigating factor in the sentencing, the judge said. The defendants were accused of offending the churchgoers present -- through their actions, obscene language and their clothing -- and showing a lack of respect for the rules of the Orthodox Church. They ignored requests to stop their brief unscheduled protest performance, the court heard. While their actions outraged many of Russia's faithful, their high-profile trial prompted international concern about freedom of speech in Russia. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said on its official Twitter feed that the sentence was "disproportionate." European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned the court's decision as "deeply troubling." "Together with the reports of the band members' mistreatment during their pre-trial detention and the reported irregularities of the trial, it puts a serious question mark over Russia's respect for international obligations of fair, transparent, and independent legal process," she said.

Pussy Riot and Russia's surreal 'justice' "It also runs counter to Russia's international obligations as regards respect for freedom of expression." Urging Russia to reverse the sentence, Ashton said the case "adds to the recent upsurge in politically motivated intimidation and prosecution of opposition activists in the Russian Federation, a trend that is of growing concern to the European Union." Rights group Amnesty International said that the court's decision was "a bitter blow for freedom of expression in the country" and that the women were now "prisoners of conscience." Amnesty believes that the women's conduct "was politically motivated, and that they were wrongfully prosecuted for what was a legitimate -- if potentially offensive -- protest action," it said in a statement. Supporters vent anger on Twitter John Dalhuisen, director of Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia Program, urged Russian authorities to overturn the sentence and release the trio unconditionally. He also highlighted recent measures "restricting the freedom of expression and association" introduced after a wave of popular protests that accompanied elections earlier this year. "This trial is another example of the Kremlin's attempts to discourage and delegitimize dissent. It is likely to backfire," he said.

Human Rights Watch also said the women should never have been prosecuted for a hate crime. "The charges and verdict against the Pussy Riot band members distort both the facts and the law," Hugh Williamson, the rights group's Europe and Central Asia director, said in a statement. Earlier, a number of arrests were made outside the court, where protesters gathered as the verdict was read, RIA Novosti reported. The women are expected to appeal the court's decision. The charge of hooliganism aimed at inciting religious hatred carried a potential sentence of up to seven years in prison. None of the three women is older than 30. They have been in custody since their arrest shortly after the unexpected performance. They looked calm and occasionally smiled and exchanged remarks as they stood, sometimes in handcuffs, behind a glass wall in the court, listening to the lengthy ruling.

Moscow district court heard that the three worked together to carry out their "criminal act which violated public order" -- in an action that "went against tradition and is a great insult to the church and people." The three wore revealing, brightly colored clothing and covered their faces with balaclava-style masks in a style "inappropriate" for a church before making use of a microphone and electric guitar, the court was told. Video footage of the "punk prayer" protest song was placed online, although the judge said it was not clear who had posted it. Sirovaya said that the apologies by the defendants "were not sincere" and described their conduct as "an unprecedented act of hooliganism by women." Celebrities back Pussy Riot Evidence from character witnesses for the three women was also read out. Alyokhina was described as being a writer of poetry, a vegan and a good mother, RIA Novosti said. Pop star Madonna last week performed Pussy Riot-style in a face mask and with the group's name on her back during a packed Moscow gig. She's one of a number of celebrities to back the women's cause. "Everyone has the right to free speech, everywhere in the world.

Maria, Katya, Nadia, I pray for you," Madonna said at Tuesday's concert, according to RIA Novosti. "They did something brave with their action. And I am praying for their freedom." Rallies in support of Pussy Riot were also organized Friday outside Russian embassies around the world, including in London and Washington. Putin criticized the women's action this month but said they should not be judged "too harshly," RIA Novosti said. He added that he hoped the court makes "the right decision." Pussy Riot specializes in sudden, often illegal public performances, including one in Moscow's Red Square. The "punk prayer" was inspired by the women's anger about the relationship between the Russian government and the Orthodox Church, according to the band's manager, who is married to one of the women. The Orthodox leader Patriarch Kyril has been widely reported as saying Putin's years in power have been a miracle from God. Putin won reelection to the presidency in March in a vote that international observers said did not meet international standards. The presidential election came just months after allegations of fraud in parliamentary elections prompted the largest anti-government demonstrations Russia had seen in two decades.

Feminist punk band Pussy Riot take revolt to the Kremlin | World news | The Guardian Russia Feminist punk band Pussy Riot take revolt to the Kremlin Anonymous band with provocative anti-Putin lyrics – who have become a symbol of Russian youth's discontent – are preparing for their next surprise performance Members of Pussy Riot perform on a platform in front of St Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow. Photograph: Anna Artemeva/AFP/Getty Images Close This article is 4 years old Eight women stood in a line opposite the Kremlin, neon balaclavas hiding their faces, fists pounding the air in rugged defiance. Before police carted them off, the members of Pussy Riot managed to shout their way through a minute-long punk anthem: "Revolt in Russia – the charisma of protest / Revolt in Russia, Putin's got scared!" Formed days after Vladimir Putin's announcement in September that he intended to return to the presidency, Pussy Riot have become the latest symbol of young Russian discontent. "A lot of us couldn't sleep after this announcement," said "Tyurya", one of the founding members of a punk collective that has grown, since October, to roughly 30 people, including crew. "So we decided, damn it, we need to do something.

We always went to protests and things, but it seemed to us we needed to do something more." The mid-January performance on Red Square, brazen in its choice of location and lyrics, catapulted the all-female punk band into the pantheon of Russia's increasingly creative protest movement. Pussy Riot are sworn to anonymity, hence the colourful balaclavas members use to hide their faces, even when giving interviews. "It shows we can be anybody," says a band member who goes by the name Garadzha, wearing a hot-pink ski mask and matching stockings. They decline to reveal the smallest details, aiming to maintain total secrecy. They will say only that most of the band members met at the small protests held by Russia's once-feebled opposition, from monthly illegal demonstrations calling for the right to assembly to banned gay pride marches. Their average age is 25. They are hardcore feminists. Most studied the humanities in university. They won't detail their day jobs. What united them in October was the feeling that something had to change in the country and in its culture of protest, which, until tens of thousands took to the streets after contested parliamentary elections in December, had had hardly any effect on the political discourse.

"We understood that to achieve change, including in the sphere of women's rights, it's not enough to go to Putin and ask for it," said Garadzha. "This is a rotten, broken system." Her bandmate Tyurya said: "The culture of protest needs to develop. We have one form, but we need many different kinds." The band began writing songs with lyrics such as: "Egyptian air is good for the lungs / Do Tahrir on Red Square!" and performing on trams and in the metro. Videos of the flash gigs began spreading across the internet. When the protest leader Alexey Navalny was jailed for 15 days after his arrest during Russia's first post-election protest on 5 December, three members of Pussy Riot took to the roof of the jail where he was being held, setting off red flares as they sang "Death to prison / Freedom to protest!" The fear of arrest long ago left the band members, steeped in the tradition of illegal protest. "We have experience with it, we've been detained at protests before," said Tyurya.

"It's not scary – you're surrounded by good, normal people, those who protest against Putin." All eight women were detained during the Kremlin performance, questioned and released. Most got off with administrative fines rather than the 15-day jail sentences often doled out to those who stage illegal protests. "The revolution should be done by women," said Garazhda. "For now, they don't beat or jail us as much." "There's a deep tradition in Russia of gender and revolution – we've had amazing women revolutionaries." The band is getting ready for its next performance, something that usually takes a month to pull together. Its members don't discuss plans on the telephone or give away details, out of fear that the security services will disrupt the project. Is what they do art or politics? "For us it's one and the same." They won't be wearing their radical outfits when attending Moscow's next big protest on Saturday, as the opposition hopes to build on the momentum of two major protests in December that brought tens of thousands to the streets of the Russian capital. But like all good punks, the band wants to see the protest movement develop beyond legal boundaries.

"Putin and his team are behaving so rudely, and the people aren't ready to react in the same way – they want all these protests to be sanctioned," said Tyurya. "But that's what's needed when you're fighting an illegitimate government. They're basically occupiers, they don't have the right to be here – why should things be agreed with them?" That was a sentiment that began to arise among some of Moscow's protesters in late January, when negotiations between organisers and the mayor's office dragged on as authorities sought – and ultimately failed – to push the demonstration to Moscow's outskirts. Protesters will march on Saturday towards Bolotnaya Square, across from the Kremlin. Tens of thousands are expected, despite a temperature of -20C. Putin is still widely expected to win the presidential election on 4 March and remains the country's most popular politician, something his critics attribute to the state's monopoly on television and access to politics. Liberal politicians are regularly denied the right to register parties, and the candidacy of Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of the liberal Yabloko party, was declared invalid last week.

Yet analysts say Putin's ability to govern unchallenged will be severely hampered by the negative reaction to his return. It has not only rocked the Russian elite, but led to a renewal of spirit in Russia's creative classes. Satirical programmes find no place on state-run television but have blossomed on the internet. Moscow theatres are staging overtly anti-regime plays. And Pussy Riot, who cite riot grrrl pioneers Bikini Kill and cult heroes Sonic Youth as inspiration, continue to perform. "We wanted to create a new form of protest – maybe not such a huge one, but we compensate for that with the bright, provocative and illegal nature of our performances," Tyurya said. Like Russia's tens of thousands of protesters, the band members don't know how the authorities will react next time. "After Red Square, they took us roughly, got even angrier than usual," Tyurya said.

"The phrase 'Putin's got scared' – it was a real slap in their faces." Thousands pray outside Moscow's main cathedral, the scene of jailed punk band's alleged hooliganism during anti-Putin protest Published: 22 Apr 2012 Patriarch Kirill condemns calls for leniency after Pussy Riot performed unsanctioned show in Moscow's main cathedral Published: 25 Mar 2012 Supporters at anti-Putin rally in Moscow call for release of alleged members of band Published: 10 Mar 2012 Two band members still in custody are reportedly on hunger strike after protest at Moscow's Christ the Saviour cathedral Published: 6 Mar 2012 3 members of Russian band Pussy Riot plead not guilty to hooliganism - CNN.com 3 members of Russian band Pussy Riot plead not guilty to hooliganism By the CNN Wire Staff Updated 8:37 PM ET, Mon July 30, 2012 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

Members of Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (L), Maria Alyokhina (R), and Yekaterina Samutsevich (C), in court on Monday. Story highlights Pussy Riot sang an anti-Putin song in Moscow's Christ Savior Cathedral Three band members face charges of hooliganism and up to seven years in prison They pleaded not guilty and apologized to offended Christians, RIA-Novosti says Amnesty International says the trial "never should have taken place" Three members of the Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of hooliganism after performing a song criticizing President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow church, Russia's state news agency reported. The charge, which carries a potential seven-year sentence, stems from an unusual performance they gave in February. "Mother Mary please drive Putin away," the band screamed, their faces covered in neon masks, inside Moscow's Christ Savior Cathedral. The anonymous, feminist protest band called it a punk prayer. Three of the women were arrested soon after, and have been in custody ever since. Two of the women have young children.

JUST WATCHED Read more: Jailed punk band Pussy Riot pushes free speech limits in Russia On Monday, band members apologized to Orthodox Christian believers if they felt they had been insulted, state news agency RIA-Novosti reported. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, grinned at cameras as police brought them from a van into the court, waving their handcuffed arms behind their backs. They appeared in court in an enclosure that forced them to bend down to speak through small window to be heard. Amnesty International said Monday the trial "never should have taken place." John Dalhuisen of Amnesty said the singers had been making "a legitimate protest -- this is not a criminal offense. They must be released immediately." "They dared to attack the two pillars of modern Russian establishment -- the Kremlin and the Orthodox Church. While many may have found their act offensive, the sentence of up to seven years in prison they may expect on the charges of hooliganism is wildly out of all proportion," he said.

Pussy Riot member Tolokonnikova is bearing up well in jail, her husband, Peter Verzilov, told CNN earlier this month. "She looks very good and she's taking it as she's supposed to take it -- as very political and very artistic; as a very solid, creative and powerful person," he said, based on fleeting glimpses of her in court. Pussy Riot specializes in sudden, often illegal public performances, including one in Moscow's Red Square. "We did realize that at some point, (they) could get arrested. That was always a possibility, but of course no one expected the arrest would come after this particular performance," Verzilov said. The punk prayer was inspired by the women's anger about the relationship between the Russian government and the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox leader Patriarch Kyril has been widely reported as saying Putin's years in power have been a miracle from God. But the band's behavior in one of Russia's most sacred cathedrals has outraged many of the country's faithful. "This is a disgusting thing to do," one woman told CNN. "They should go to jail," said another. "A year or two.

Let them to think about their behavior." But even some of those who were offended believe the women should not be in jail. "If necessary, God will punish them," said one man. "It must be not be cruel punishment." The women also have passionate supporters who say they are victims of political persecution. Verzilov says he has told his 4-year-old daughter who's to blame. "Gerra knows that Putin has put Nadia in prison and he's not letting her out. We have to find a way to defeat him to free Nadia," he said. The Russian president hasn't commented on the case. Pussy Riot is only one small part of the recent anti-Putin protest movement. But the decision to jail and prosecute these women has ensured that the band's colorful face masks have become one of the opposition's most powerful symbols. Punk Band Arrested For Anti-Putin Church Demonstration | Music News @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com + Submit article Punk Band Arrested For Anti-Putin Church Demonstration Six members of the band Pussy Riot have been arrested for staging a protest against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Posted Mar 06, 2012 01:02 PM 1 Six members of the band Pussy Riot have been arrested for staging a protest against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The Moscow Times reports that the punk protestors will now face hooliganism charges following their demonstration at the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow last month. If found guilty, they could face up to seven years in prison. Putin recently triumphed in the Russian Presidential election but, despite his insistence that his victory was clean and legitimate, the verdict has been marred by accusations of fraud by his competitors. Members of the band had staged an impromptu performance at the church on February 21, when they sang a song called "Holy Sh-t" as a protest against the Orthodox Christian's church alleged support for Putin. Although the group were initially able to flee before police arrived, the Interior Ministry have now confirmed that they have been captured and arrested. Three women and one man were arrested last Saturday (March 3), with police apprehending another two suspects the following day (March 4).

The Interior Ministry said: "These citizens were taken in on suspicion of committing a crime, one involving a gross violation of public order, including inciting religious hatred as part of a planned conspiracy." Meanwhile, RIA Novosti reports that two members of the band, named as Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, have gone on hunger strike since their arrest. The pair claim that they should be released on bail as they have underage children and therefore would be unlikely to flee, but no official verdict has been made on their detainment. Thanks for the report to NME.com . Pussy Riot trial: Russia's girl punk band faces jail after Putin protest insults Russian Orthodox Church | Daily Mail Online comments Pussy Riot band members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Aliokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, speaking from their perspex cell A state prosecutor in Russia today demanded a three-year jail term for three women from the punk band Pussy Riot. Alexei Nikiforov said they had abused God when they stormed the altar of a Moscow cathedral and sang a 'protest prayer' against the Russian Orthodox Church's close links to Vladimir Putin.

The case, in which the three are charged with hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, has outraged many Russian Orthodox believers. But it has also caused an international outcry and focused attention on a crackdown on dissent since Putin returned to the presidency for a six-year term on May 7. 'The actions of the accomplices clearly show religious hatred and enmity,' the federal prosecutor said in closing arguments, watched by the women's lawyers, friends and family in the tiny courtroom. 'There was real mockery and humiliation directed at the people in the church,' he said. The defendants looked pale and tired as they sat silently in a glass and metal courtroom cage, two of them scribbling notes. Their lawyer said the demand for a prison sentence was disproportionate and shameful. Nikiforov did not press the court for the maximum seven-year sentence. Putin said last week that Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, had done 'nothing good' but should not be judged too harshly.

But the prosecutor ignored pleas by the opposition and human rights groups not to seek jail terms over the profanity-laced protest, in which the trio, wearing balaclavas and short dresses, burst into the Christ the Saviour Cathedral and belted out a song urging the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin. 'Using swear words in a church is an abuse of God,' Nikiforov said. He dismissed the defendants' argument that the protest was not intended to offend believers and was aimed at highlighting the church's support for Putin. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share 'The insult is not to Putin but to the social group of Orthodox Christian believers,' he said. The band members see themselves as part of a protest movement that last winter organised the biggest demonstrations since the former KGB spy first rose to power in 2000, at times attracting crowds in Moscow of 100,000. 'This is a nightmare. Blood is pouring from my ears,' defence lawyer Nikolai Polozov said in a message on a social network site after the prosecutor's demand for jail terms. It is not clear when the sentence will be passed but it could be anytime this week.

The trio's protest also took aim at Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and infuriated church leaders who have described Putin's 12-year rule as a 'miracle of God' and described the women as doing the work of the devil. On trial: Three members of feminist punk group Pussy Riot, Nadia , left, Katya, right and Maria, centre, are on trial for putting on an anti-Putin performance in a Moscow cathedral The trio waits in a defendant's cage awaiting the beginning of their trial session at the Khamovnichesky district court in Moscow earlier today A video was posted on YouTube two weeks before the presidential vote in March in which Putin won a third term, despite a wave of massive protests against his rule. When Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church – who earlier had urged the congregation to vote for Putin – watched the video clip and contacted the president, the women were immediately arrested. The case has provided Putin, 59, with a chance to deepen his contacts with the Russian Orthodox Church, which has enjoyed a surge in support since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Opposition leaders say the trial is also part of a wider crackdown intended to silence Putin's critics and which also includes tightening checks on foreign-funded lobby groups, new controls on the Internet and big fines for protesters. Though terrified by the prospect of a lengthy jail sentence, Maria remains defiantly determined that she has right on her side. She is genuinely sorry if she caused offence, she says. When she was refused bail and told she had to remain in jail to protect her from angry Orthodox believers, she was furious. ‘I do not need such protection,’ she scoffs. ‘Jail does not protect me, it doesn’t make me better,’ she says sadly. ‘It just ruins me. ‘My life is like a pendulum swinging between the words nonsense and outrage. I spend my time reading letters and meeting my lawyer. And I’m reading my letters of support. Thanks to these, I can now quote the disciple Paul, who said, “God is with me, and I won’t be scared about what a man can do to me.” ‘And if Orthodox people are offended that we climbed on the altar and used it as a stage, then we ask them to forgive us. We just didn’t really know the church rules.

‘Let me assure you that we do understand them now. ‘Frankly, I consider the charges against me absurd because I live in a secular state and I am a citizen of a secular state.’ 'And if Orthodox people are offended that we climbed on the altar and used it as a stage, then we ask them to forgive us. We just didn’t really know the church rules.' For more than five months now the girls have languished in jail awaiting their trial, which began last week at Moscow’s Khamovniki district court. After lengthy courtroom appearances each day, the women are rarely allowed to sleep for more than four hours at night and are frequently denied food and water for up to 12 hours while cooped up in their perspex cage. Their only glimpses of daylight are during their daily drive to what is widely regarded as a Putin-orchestrated show trial. And, once inside their stuffy, airless cage, they are even denied access to the 3,000 pages of so-called evidence against them.

Last week, as Putin paid a fleeting visit to London to watch the Olympic judo – while glad-handing David Cameron – he hinted that the judiciary should take a lenient view of the protest staged in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. In reality, the trial could not be more crucial, coming at a pivotal point in Putin’s increasingly brutal bid to crush the crumbling remains of his country’s civil liberties. The cathedral protest which landed the three Russian punk girls in trouble with the country's authorities Slumped in a corner of her court-room cage, Nadia, a fifth-year philosophy student who is married with a four-year-old daughter, Gera, says she doesn’t believe she is guilty of anything more than voicing her opinions; nor that the band’s stunt in the cathedral, was hooliganism or designed to incite religious hatred and hostility towards the church. ‘I’ve never performed, and I’m not going to perform, any socially dangerous acts,’ she insists. ‘And I don’t consider what I have done is a crime. It is not worth keeping me here and making my child suffer.’ All she wants, she says, is to see an end to the authoritarian stranglehold Putin has on Russia.

‘What we did was a desperate attempt to change the political system. We had no intention of insulting people. We never thought our punk appearance would cause offence. A Pussy Riot supporter is shouting slogans outside the court ahead of the trial. Support for the women have been wide spread including U.S. rockers Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Stephen Fry ‘Our mistake was bringing our political protest to a temple. We were just reacting to the patriarch calling upon the congregation to vote for Putin and his policies.’ Maria is equally convinced of her innocence. ‘The aim of our performance was to attract Patriarch Kirill’s attention. ‘We are confused by his actions and his appeals to the congregation. What we want is dialogue. ‘He says that Orthodox believers must vote for Putin. I am Orthodox but my political views are different. So what should I do?’ Whether Putin intends to make examples of them or has, indeed, decided to be lenient, it is impossible to know. One thing, however, is assured: it will be, ultimately, the Russian President’s decision. As Nadia’s husband Peter Verjilov says: ‘Putin is Russia’s court.

He will decide the verdict in the end.’ Video: Madonna defends Pussy Riot, the band arrive at court plus more headlines

Question: What was the name of the punk group that had 3 members arrested for criticising Valdimir Putin?
Answer: PUSSY RIOT