This morning, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, from the punk band/radical artist collective Pussy Riot were convicted of “hooliganism with the intent to incite religious hatred” to serve out a sentence of two years in a prison colony each. Their crime? Spending a whopping 40 seconds inside the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow dancing, kicking, and throwing up their fists to their anti-Putin protest song “Punk Prayer.”

Seem like a bit much? It’s a “softened” sentence, according to the judge, because some of the women have young children and this was their first offense. Some of the “victims” — that is, the Eastern Orthodox Christians who witnessed the act or glimpsed at it on YouTube or just merely heard it mentioned in the news and were thus thrown into moral “agony” over the blasphemous “interruption of social order” — had requested leniency. They complained about the bright balaclavas, the “fists,” the “demonic seizing,” the short skirts and high kicks that revealed offensive thighs, and, worst of all, calling for a prayer when only a church employee is authorized to do such a thing. The “victims” were scandalized after witnessing Pussy Riot trespassing in areas of the church were no women were allowed, and taking the Virgin’s name in vain by asking her to “become a feminist!” in their chants. However, watching the trial unfold for the last day on a live-streamed Russian channel, it was clear that this was much more than a case of Orthodox religious wrath. … Read More