The last two remaining jailed members of Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova have been released as a goodwill gesture earlier than expected - Yekaterina Samutsevich the 3rd member of the group was released in October. They were imprisoned for performing a protest song in a Moscow church calling for Russian president Vladimir Putin to be thrown out of office.
In the UK we understand the power of protest and the the right for free speech, especially in artistic forms. Tell me another country in the world which would allow an excerpt from the punk anarchist anthem “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols to be played at the open ceremony of their own Olympic Games with the serving monarch of the day in attendance? I bet you can’t. In Russia, the authorities are not so enamoured by such behaviour. In a trial that is catching world headlines, Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich all members of the female Punk protest group “Pussy Riot” have just been found guilty of hooliganism, after performing an anti Putin protest song in Moscow's Christ the Saviour cathedral in February and have been sentenced to 2 years in jail. As ever there is an astrological story behind the events in Moscow right now, and glimpsing ahead, this could be a seminal moment in the future of modern Russia.
