"We've been fighting for the right to sing, to think, to criticize." "To musicians and artists, ready to do everything to change our country, no matter the risks." "To go on with our invisible fight in Russia." "And our country is dominated by evil man." "This man thinks it's illegal to call yourself a feminist and to sing punk music." "This man thinks it's illegal to stand up." "This man thinks it's illegal to stand up for the rights of the gay and lesbian community." "This man thinks that you can't criticize your government." "This man thinks if you sing and dance in an inappropriate way, you get two years in prison." "Thank you, Madonna." "Thank you, Red Hot Chili Peppers." "Thank you, Bjork." "Thank you, Green Day." "And to gigantic punk feminists, thank you." "To all musicians, activists." "To all musicians, activists." "To everyone around the world, who stand up together for fight to have a right to be free." "Start with Pussy Riot and never stop." "The fight for freedom is an eposidal that is bigger than life." "Mr. Putin now can lie to the whole world and feel that he is completely safe and secure in doing this." "Nobody will do anything to him." "This is the FSB." "Get down on the floor." "Then the first man who reached me, grabbed me down, and threw me to the snow and put a gun to my head." "This is a country where people die from dissent." "There is a flaw in the Constitution if we speak about the document itself." "This is the super presidential republic." "Nearly 60 years ago," "Rock 'n Roll icons like Elvis Presley." "Rock 'n Roll icons like Elvis Presley were considered subversive and even censored." "However, freedom of speech prevailed, and the rest is history." "Rock and roll." "It changed the world with dreams of love and peace." "With the power to speak out." "I just want to say a few words about Pussy Riot." "They have done something courageous." "I pray for their freedom." "Pussy Riot's rock music." "Pussy Riot's rock music and its message of free speech and the right of political and artistic expression caught the world's attention like no other dissidents before them." "In a performance on February 21st 2012, on the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, the band asked the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of President Vladimir Putin's increasingly harsh and dangerous regime." "Increasingly harsh and dangerous regime." "They were arrested on a dark street in Moscow two weeks later and held for more than six months without access to their spouses and young children." "They were charged with hoolganism and were denied legal counsel until right before the trial." "Katia Samutsevich was released on appeal." "Because of her minor role in the punk prayer, the court changed the sentence from two years in a prison camp to two years in prison, suspended." "She didn't do anything." "She didn't do anything." "She didn't make a single gesture." "She just tried to get out with her guitar." "But Masha Alyokhina and Nadia Tolokonnikova will serve two years in different prison colonies, far from their families." "Before they were imprisoned on March 4th, 2012," "Masha, 24, was a fourth-year student at the Institute of Journalism in Moscow." "Nadia, 23, was a third-year philosophy student at the prestigious Moscow State University." "At the prestigious Moscow State University." "Her first name means "hope" in Russian." "Katia, 30, was a computer programmer who graduated at the top of her class." "She worked on a classified military project before studying art at the Rodchenko Institute of Photography and Multi-Media." "Artists from around the world expressed their support." "International attention is absolutely essential for them to stay alive." "It's that simple." "Russian prison colonies are really scary places" "Russian prison colonies are really scary places and especially the prison colony where Nadia Tolokonnikova is held." "For her to get out of there alive, she needs to be in the eye of the international media." "We are allowed to have only one meeting every two months which lasts for four hours and one special "prison date"" "which lasts for four hours and one special "prison date"" "which lasts three days every three months." "So all our communication with Nadia happens through her Mordovian lawyer who visits her and brings letters to her from us and basically she answers those letters right away." "That's how we get a sense of what's happening and what Nadia is living through." "Gera, once I meet you I will be very happy and will hug you very, very strong." "Gera, I love you." "I really want to be with you, and talk with you." "I really want to be with you, and talk with you and play with you, but they're not letting me." "Gera, I'm hugging you." "Until I see you." "Nadia" "Nadia was bought up in a very, very extreme conditions." "Meaning extreme" " I'm talking about the place she was born and where she lived." "And now she was born in the town of Noril'sk, and to understand that's one of the big cities in Russia." "She was seeking to compensate this" "She was seeking to compensate this" "Kind of, inability to go outside, because it was -50, with the creation of a very interesting social structure inside herself." "Masha's son is with his grandmother and his dad right now." "He's a very lively and active boy, but I think the situation does affect him." "He's only five, but he looks like he's somewhat reserved already that something bothers him inside." "We also went to the city in the northern part of Perm region called Berezniki, and that's where." "Masha's prison camp, IK28, is located." "And well, all prison camps look quite the same." "Masha's and Nadia's is like concrete walls with barbed wire with towers with machine gunners and a lot of technical structures around those buildings." "Masha's situation is a bit different." "Masha's situation is a bit different because being a very idealist, poetic and romantic person, she upon appearing in her prison camp, she tried to kind of give the other inmates the idea that she would be basically," "she would try to actually fight for their rights and try to change things inside the prison camp." "And obviously this wasn't met with too much joy by the prison administration and by other inmates by the prison administration and by other inmates who were serving really long periods of time." "And several women, in fact three women, which had prison terms of 17 and 19 years, started talking quite aggressively to Masha." "She asked one of the prison attendants what to do, and he recommended to write a transfer request to a safer place." "She wrote a transfer request, and the safe place ended up to be a punishment cell." "She was completely exhausted and said she did not want to be." "She was completely exhausted and said she did not want to be in a single cell, but at the same time she can't come back to the inmate brigade because Masha asked the prison administration whether they can guarantee her safety," "and they replied, "No, we can't."" "Can artists and intellectuals change Russia's backward slide to a totalitarian government?" "Will the international outcry by music icons in support of a female rock band give Russian dissidents the courage to press their case give Russian dissidents the courage to press their case against Russian President Vladimir Putin?" "Putin is not just a crook and a thief." "Putin is a murderer and dictator." "Pussy Riot was formed in 2011." "Like other avant garde artists, they were tolerated by the government without much notice until their performance in February 2012." "Artists understood their protest calling for separation of church and state and Pussy Riot opposed the open campaigning of the church to re-elect Putin." "This youth that is growing up, it has brains." "It has its own position." "It has brains." "It has its own position." "It has the desire to live in a normal country." "They are twisted into a pretzel, and that is not right." "They're destroying the generation that is not indifferent." "It's really bad." "Nadia was a wonderful child." "While she was in school, she would sing Russian hymns from the beginning to the end from memory." "She used to put a flag of the Russian Federation dacha house." "She's stubborn." "She's persistent." "She's stubborn." "She's persistent." "She would never allow someone to influence her." "It's very unlikely." "This is her position." "This is her credo already formed, maybe not from real life but via her own thoughts and ideas." "Yes, they protest outside on the street." "They picket." "They go to prison." "If there is a natural disaster, they are there." "If there is a natural disaster, they are there." "Masha Aloykhina was saving a wildlife sanctuary." "In the West, these type of people appeared in the 60s, and there were only a few of them." "♪ We are not afraid We are not afraid ♪" "♪ We are not afraid today ♪" "These little ones are almost like." "Joan of Arc." "You think I'm exaggerating." "Their act of self-sacrifice was childish." "Their act of self-sacrifice was childish." "However, the execution was adult-like." "Although many international artists and citizens support Pussy Riot, the majority of Russian citizens and more conservative Westerners are critical of the women and their methods of protest." "In a public statement," "Putin referred to Nadia and her husband having sex at the Moscow's Zoological Museum." "They staged an orgy in a public place." "In a public place." "Of course, people are allowed to do whatever they want to do as long as it's legal." "But this kind of performance in a public place should not go unnoticed by the authorities." "Before Nadia joined Pussy Riot, the two were members of an art performance group called Voina." "The protest by Voina was staged in front of a large stuffed bear after Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev inherited the presidency from Putin in 2008." "Medved means "bear" in Russian." "Medved means "bear" in Russian." "The two politicians then flipped the offices again when Putin was re-elected president in 2012." "They were making love there as a symbol of birth." "It's an act of love among dead nature to show that there is at least something living in this country." "The politicians are all stuffed characters." "They're not real." "It looks like it's real, but actually it's dead." "Lenin is a scare crow." "In the center of the country, a scarecrow lies," "In the center of the country, a scarecrow lies, aethistic, scary, stuffed with hay." "This is a perfect metaphor for what the authorities would want to see in every person, form without any content." "Outside, everything looks decent." "Nothing inside." "Never protest, always say "Yes."" "Art uses a particular language." "You have to understand it, and you have to embrace it." "And if a person does not embrace it, does not understand it, the only thing it creates in him is irritation." "We really are provocateurs, but do not say that word as something obscene." "Art is always a provocation." "It's always a kind of pulling out of a conflict." "It's always a kind of pulling out of a conflict that exists as an embryo." "But we didn't create this conflict." "The fact is if there is a chance to pull it to the surface, make it a little more clear, hightlight it, eliminate it, giving it perhaps a first time a chance to really understand the underlying causes of the conflict." "In this sense, our actions can be useful." "Of course, the stupidity." "Of course, the stupidity of the authorities has helped the girls a lot, absolute stupidity." "I know some people among the authorities." "I know them personally, and I just can't understand who of these guys" "Because they are not idiots-- Who came up with the idea to make the girls a worldwide symbol of lack of freedoms in Russia political and cultural?" "In her closing statement in the trial," "Maria Alyokhina spoke about her concern." "Maria Alyokhina spoke about her concern for the children of Russia." "Beginning in childhood, we forget our freedom." "I have personal experience with psychiatric clinics for minors." "I can say with conviction that any teenager who shows any signs of active nonconformity can end up in such a place." "In Nadia Tolokonnikova's closing statement at the Pussy Riot trial, she suggests that history is repeating itself in Russia." "She suggests that history is repeating itself in Russia." "Despite the prosecution's threat to isolate them from family, the women stood their ground and paid a steep price." "Essentially, it is not three musicians from Pussy Riot who are on trial here." "If that were the case, what's happening would be totally insignificant." "It is the entire state system of the Russian Federation which is on trial and which, unfortunately for itself, which is on trial and which, unfortunately for itself, thoroughly enjoys advertising its cruelty towards human beings," "its indifferences to their honor and dignity, the very worst that has happened in Russian history to date." "To my deepest regret, this mock trial is close to the standards of the Stalinist troikas." "In June, 2012, protesters compared." "Putin's crackdowns and techniques to those of former Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, to those of former Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, who said, "If your enemy will not give in, kill him."" "Or as Putin has done most recently with dissenters," ""Jail him."" "A new bill passed in June will raise fines on those who take part in the oxymoron of unauthorized protests 150-fold, to nearly the average annual salary in Russia." "The top Twitter hash tag in Russia recently was." ""Welcome to the year 37,"" "a reference to the height of the massive purges under Stalin." "A reference to the height of the massive purges under Stalin." "Overall political culture in Russia, unfortunately, mainly is based on cultural codes established during Stalin's time." "They might be used in different context with different meaning, but still these political structures invented by Stalin, they dominate us." "My Parents told me about the Gulag and what our court system and what our court system and human rights defense system were like." "We have been through it, and it's in the past." "And now it is coming back." "We can't overreact to it because always we think it will never happen again, never happen again." "Because now what we have, Stalin come back." "Stalin become part of our life." "People discuss if Stalin will be now." "Stalin will show you." "In a letter announcing her hunger strike," "Nadia wrote about the harsh realities of Penal Colony, No. 14 realities such as 16-to 17-hour work days, seven days a week." "Prisoners made to stand naked for long hours outside in the cold, for long hours outside in the cold, some losing fingers and toes to frostbite, beatings and prohibiting use of the toilet." "As the prisoner saying goes," ""Those who never did time in Mordovia, never did time at all."" "When they send you to Mordovia, it is as though you are headed to the scaffold." "Mordovia greeted me with the words of the deputy chief of the penal colony," "Lieutenant Colonel Kupriyanov," "Lieutenant Colonel Kupriyanov, the defacto head of the administration." "He said, "You should know that when it comes to politics," "I am a Stalinist."" ""If you weren't Tolokonnikova, you would have had the shit kicked out of you long ago,"" "say fellow prisoners with close ties to the administration." "It's true." "Others are beaten up for not being able to keep up with the work." "It also is a corrective measure to only give prisoners stale bread, heavily watered down milk, heavily watered down milk, rusted millet and rotten potatoes." "When Nadia asked Colonel Kupriyanov to have work days reduced to 12 to 14 hours, he responded with a veiled threat." ""If anyone finds that you're the one behind this, you'll never complain again," he said." ""After all, there is nothing to complain about in the afterlife."" "After an eleven-day hunger strike," "Nadia was hospitalized and then transferred to another prison." "And then transferred to another prison." "For weeks, no one knew where she was or what was happening to her." "At the same time, Masha had her second hearing for early release." "This time, she refused to plead for her freedom." "I do not have the moral right to start an appeal trial for early release." "When my friend, Nadia Tolokonnikova, does not have the opportunity while she is in a prison hospital, while she is being transferred from a prison about which we hear terrible things." "About which we hear terrible things." "If Russian authorities are planning to release me earlier," "I demand they do it on terms of wide amnesty which would be applied to all women who have small children." "Putin says the country is moving toward democracy but those imprisoned by his regime, no doubt, would not agree." "We want to live in a democratic country," "We want to live in a democratic country, and we will where each person has freedom and opportunity to use his talents and energy." "We will live in a successful Russia, which will be respected in the world as an open and predictable partner." "The Russian Constitution grants freedoms that are similar to the U.S. Constitution." "Is Putin's regime writing its own amendments to the Russian Constitution that support actions that are characterized as fascist by demonstrators that are characterized as fascist by demonstrators as they are being dragged away or beaten." "I came to the capitol from town Kazan, and I am in shock what is happening in the capitol." "And I am in shock what is happening in the capitol." "I want Putin for his consciousness to wake up." "Having taken part in both elections," "I can confidently declare that Tatarstan did not give to Putin 83 percent." "The elections were falsified, and it is impossible to prove your rightness." "Russian citizens, unfortunately, can't come to the capitol." "He'll be driven away from here with police, will be put into a paddy wagon and taken away." "In principal, we have a pretty good Constitution, but it doesn't work because in the state, there are people who need to be guided by the Constitution." "People don't know the Constitution, and they don't read it." "And they don't read it." "The Constitution was adopted right after the fall of the Soviet Union" "and adopted by very smart people who wanted to include all the advanced achievements of western countries." "And it so happens that the current regime of Vladimir Putin, it is more reactionary." "And for him, this Constitution is like a sore in the eye" "And for him, this Constitution is like a sore in the eye" "Too many freedoms-- Too many." "We are not in the Empire of Evil." "We are in the heart of a Satan, and the heart is beating." "Black blood is pumping like oil." "The girls have poked the devil's eye, and the devil has screamed, "I'm God."" "And the girls say, "No, you're not God." "You're the devil,"" "so it's an argument between them." "Is he a devil, or is he a God?" "It is an existential argument." "It is an existential argument." "We are planning to push forward complaints on prison conditions, living and working conditions, psychological and physical violence, sexual violence, which happens in our prisons." "We will work with those prisoners who are ready to speak up about what they are enduring who are ready to speak up about what they are enduring or what they have endured if they are already free from prison." "We have a name for our project, which is called, "Justice Zone."" "Someone said that "Justice Zone"" "is not a good name, but we think it is a good name." "It is our goal that the prison zone is just and not the other way around because currently it is not just and totally not right." "The first official action from the US." "The first official action from the US citing Russian human rights violations came from the US Congress." "Today, we open a new chapter in US leadership for human rights with the Sergey Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act." "An anti-corruption lawyer," "Sergey Magnitsky was arrested when he exposed a fraud in which government officials had stolen $230 million of tax revenues." "He was denied medical care while in prison, beaten and died." "Beaten and died." "The US Congress passed the Magnitsky Act in 2012." "A list of 16 people involved in his arrest, imprisonment and death will no longer be granted US visas or be able to utilize the US banking system." "Putin responded by banning adoption of Russian children by US citizens." "In March 2013, the Russian government tried and convicted Magnitsky in absentia, the first time in Russian history the first time in Russian history that a dead man has been prosecuted." "I consider this case to be very important because it shows the attitude of democratic society to the lawlessness that happened toward Magnitsky." "The adoption of this act is a big step." "If a list of Magnitsky or Pussy Riot is passed, then children of the people who are in power in Russia, then children of the people who are in power in Russia, they will never forgive them for it." "If access to Western blessings will be closed for everybody... for all members of the family - the way to Europe will be closed off," "then this power will quickly capitulate." "In September," "In September, we were invited by Amesty International." "We talked to a number of senators and congressmen about the Magnitsky Act." "The Act implies other people who violated human rights can be added." "We spoke about additions of the so-called Pussy Riot list and found support." "The question of who made the decision to convict the women of Pussy Riot is one that is clear to Russian lawyers and citizens who have been subjected to the courts." "Experience has convinced them that there is no independent judicial system in Russia as outlined in the Constitution." "If they had said everything they said about feminism and gay liberation in the prayer and hadn't said, "Mother of God, get rid of Putin,"" "they would not have been prosecuted, or at least they wouldn't have been sentenced to jail time." "Other artists have challenged leaders and escaped with minor fines." "To protest the two wars in Chechneya, the Russian performance artist, Alexander Brenner, stood in Red Square and shouted to then President Boris Yeltsin to come out and fight him." "Both times, what happened?" "The police take him." "He maybe once four hours, once one night he was in the prison." "After I pay 500 roubles, it's finished, and nobody know." "So Pussy Riot make the same, in another time and another action of government, and they become symbols." "People here are very afraid." "People here are very afraid." "I want everyone to know the amount of fear they are constantly in." "This bloody parole, it so happens, and at such large scale that in effect, it's one big crime, a prosecutable and punishable crime." "And I believe, I hope, that one day finally, these people will be charged and tried." "The Russian judicial system is little different from the classical models of authoritarian systems where court is a continuation of the function of the authoritarian government." "In political cases, what functions as the will of the court comes down from the top, either the character of the decision or the decision as a whole." "I'm absolutely sure, and that's what I heard from many, many people in France and the United States because I travel a lot, and I have a lot of because I travel a lot, and I have a lot of" "acquaintances in these two countries - all the people and not only from England, from Italy, from Germany - everybody says, and I feel absolutely the same that this is the enormous, enormous reputational damage for Russia." "Because of course people abroad, they perceive this situation as well, the country." "Of course, they understand that it's not Russians who did it." "It's the authorities who did it, who did it." "It's the authorities who did it, but still it's the image of the country so I feel shame, shame and pain for my country which I love very much." "We have brilliant people, incredible people." "Svetlana Bakhmina is a survivor of the Russian judicial and prison system." "She was convicted when the government took over the Yukos Oil Company from billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky." "From billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky." "Like one of the charges against Khodorkovsky," "Bakhmina was charged with theft." "If you simplify the situation," "I was charged with theft of assets of subsidiary companies." "Urgansky-Neftgaz and Tomsk-Neft." "I was a member of the board of directors, but the paradox is that these assets have not been stolen." "They are currently working within Rosneft." "They are currently working within Rosneft which belongs to Ugansky-Neftegaz, a government company." "Bakhmina spent four and a half years in the same prison where Nadia is being held." "Bakhmina gave birth to a daughter in prison." "The most terrible thing was the separation from the children because when I was arrested, my older kids were seven and three years old." "That's the scariest part of this story." "They were transporting me for a really long time." "It took them a month for the phased transit from Moscow, and I didn't know when I would arrive and to which colony." "The situation with prison conditions has not improved." "There is still no hot water." "You can take a bath only once a week." "And pardon me, the bathroom is outside." "And pardon me, the bathroom is outside." "Yana Yakovleva, co-owner of a chemical company, was jailed for eight months before international pressure brought her release." "Two drug enforcement officers approached her and offered to split profits with her to manufacture and ship a solvent used in processing heroin to Tajikstan, notorious for its drug trafficking." "She refused and two weeks later, different drug enforcement officers arrested her on allegations that she's producing a drug." "On allegations that she's producing a drug." "The solvent itself is not a drug but is used to treat the plants in processing heroin." "So the investigators are just thinking." ""What today we call drug?" "Say, let's call Pepsi Cola drug." "OK, done."" "Put it on the list which they created themselves." "They put it on the list." ""OK, we have heroin, marijuana, Pepsi Cola, and consider it done."" "marijuana, Pepsi Cola, and consider it done."" "They send this list to court and say," ""You see, Pepsi Cola on our list." "Do you believe us that we know Pepsi Cola is a drug?" "Very dangerous."" "Court always supports - in 99.99 percent of the cases, they always support the investigation." "It's like, you know, machine." "It's automatic system." "Nicholas the First established an independent police force established an independent police force with unlimited power in 1825." "The tradition continues with ex-KGB officer, Putin, as president." "The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill, is also an ex-KGB agent." "In my case and Nadia's and Masha's, the international community is following, and there is hope that extreme situations will not happen, that extreme situations will not happen, but nothing stopped guards from sending me to a punitive cell" "and giving me other made-up reprimands." "In reality, we know what happens in the prisons when criminal proceedings have political connotations." "The administration is unhappy to have a political prisoner because they will always be checked on and watched." "Therefore, these prisoners end up in worse conditions and a worse atmosphere than other inmates." "Political prisoners have always been a part of the Russian culture - from enemies of the Tsars to Stalin and Putin." "A fair trial by peers that occurred in the '90s has now disappeared." "Acquittal rates are extremely low compared to the United States and Great Britain where rates are between 15 to 20 percent." "Where rates are between 15 to 20 percent." "We had trial by jury introduced in the '90s." "And I think it was at the very end of the '90s." "That they were introduced around the country." "And that made a huge difference in the number of guilty verdicts because, of course, the Soviet Union like Russia now has some of the lowest rates of acquitals in the world." "I think it's less than one percent now." "And that was the same thing in the Soviet Union." "And that was the same thing in the Soviet Union." "It was about a half a percent." "Once the jury trials were introduced, in the jury trials, the acquital rate went up to 12 percent," "which is still not a lot by world standards, but it's a hell of a lot more than one percent." "And it introduced some critical thinking to the judicial process." "That's pretty much gone." "Russian lawyers refer to a phenomenon called "trial by telephone."" "called "trial by telephone."" "Starting last year," "I began to actively defend the opposition " "Sergei Udaltsov, Alexei Navalny, and a couple of others like Sergei Mitrohin, and I have already encountered when judges openly discuss the verdict." "They call to the top, and ask what kind of verdict they should deliver." "It would be nice to have Swiss judges." "It would be nice to have Swiss judges hired for our courts because you can't bribe them." "On May 6, 2012, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators protested the election of Putin to yet another term." "After having served two four-year terms as president from 2000 to 2008, protesters resented the Medvedev Amendment which extended the presidential term allowing Putin to take office for six more years." "Hundreds of people were arrested and some still sit in jail." "The public message that the trial sends, and it was quite conscious, and there's a double message." "There's a message to the protest movement, which is that there's a crackdown, and you should know that there's a real crackdown and people are going to get real jail time." "And, of course, in other cases, activists who have had less publicity and less attention from the West have already been getting harsher sentences." "There's a 4.5 year sentence that was handed down." "There's a 4.5 year sentence that was handed down a couple of weeks ago to a protester who had cooperated with the investigators." "So that means that the other 15 people who are going to be tried in the same case which is the case about the May 6th protest, are going to get more than that." "So people are going to get six years or thereabouts for street protests." "I think today, in fact," "I know that today, the people who come out on the street with the Russian Constitution also end up in jail because we live in a double standard society." "I want in the morning, on the radio, for example, tell me - OK, here's a little mistake." "Tell me - OK, here's a little mistake." "We live in a police state." "We have a dictatorship." "At least I will understand and make some decisions." "We have some kind of elections, parties," "and from the other side, the Pussy Riot case." "Hundreds of thousands of protesters questioned the legitimacy of Putin's election in 2012." "Questioned the legitimacy of Putin's election in 2012." "Bravely facing recent crackdowns on assembly, longer jail sentences and fines for peaceful protest, thousands of opposition supporters, young and old, came together on December 14th, 2012 and began laying flowers at the Solovetsky Stone." "This is a memorial to the victims of Soviet era oppression during which 20 million people lost their lives." "We just decided to come out." "This is our city." "We have a right to do so." "We have a constitutional right." "My great grandfather was killed in 1938, and I have a reason to be here today, and lay flowers to Solovetsky Stone, and this is what I did." "The symbolism could not have been more stark." "At the same time, the police in flak jackets." "At the same time, the police in flak jackets had blocked off the enire city center and started to arrest people by pulling them at random from the crowd." "Demonstrators vowed to continue their fight for freedom of speech and a more democratic society." "About the girls," "I myself would dance with them." "You have to understand to what degree everything has reached." "You have to understand to what degree everything has reached." "I would dance with them because there are no more words, no one understands anything." "You can't explain anything to anybody." "Truly broken lives." "They're dancing because they are in pain." "They're in pain." "That's it." "Nothing more." "Germany's Angela Merkel stepped forward early on to question the sentences and imprisonment of Pussy Riot." "President Putin fired back, making the allegation that the German Chancellor refers to the girls who sit in prison refers to the girls who sit in prison for their performance in a church, but is she aware that before the girls" "hung a mannequin of a Jew, and said that we need to get rid of these kind of people in Moscow." "We can't support the kind of people who hold anti-Semitic views." "Putin twisted the intention of the activists." "Oleg Vasilyev was one of two men who were mock "hung" in the 2008 protest." "Oleg, who is Jewish, stressed that he was participating in the action to demonstrate the discrimination to demonstrate the discrimination against all minorities." "Nadia was a member of the group at the time but left to join Pussy Riot." "I don't agree with Pussy Riot, but I sympathize with them because they hadn't realized all the pain and all the trouble that their stupid actions were causing." "I'm here because I'm against the hate the society is expressing against these women." "I'm against those people who are calling on us to stone them." "It might seem as though everyone in socity supports Pussy Riot, but that's not true." "There are lots of people who don't come out in the streets and have a different openion." "And have a different openion." "They think that what they did was." "Separation of church and state is a basic tenet of democratic constitutions to prevent undue influence of religious organizations." "History has shown us that when church and state band together, sexism, persecution and torture often follow." "Pussy Riot chose the altar of Moscow's largest cathedral as their protest site precisely for that reason." "As their protest site precisely for that reason." "At the trial, the church's influence was clearly heard." "It was language from church." "They discussed what sin is, what blasphemous is." "They discussed that in the Middle Ages there were some meetings of Middle Age guys from church." "But prosecutors stand and say," ""In the Middle Ages, in this Trullo meeting when all the Middle Age guys from church when all the Middle Age guys from church decide that the rules will be like that, like that, these girls break the rules."" "Wow!" "We have criminal court, and there is no such words, we have laws which is dealing with criminal prosecution and there are no words like and Middle Age meetings." "The stupidity that took place." "The stupidity that took place and the absolute lawlessness from the standpoint of democratic societies " "I was not delighted with the protest that the girls did." "I might not share their ultra radical actions from the standpoint of modern culture." "Maybe I just don't understand everything." "But what happened afterwards, it doesn't correspond to a law," "But what happened afterwards, it doesn't correspond to a law, not even from a humanitarian standpoint, from Christian values." "I'm a believer." "Maybe I'm not a church goer, but what the people who say they are defending their religion allowed themselves to do was beyond any boundaries." "And this is what led to an international outcry." "And this is what led to an international outcry." "The head of the Russian Orthodox Church," "Patriarch Kirill, has called Putin," ""A miracle of God,"" "and used the church's influence to support Putin politically." "Someone said that Pussy Riot appeared and created the problem." "This is ridiculous." "Pussy Riot just heard the problem and saw it." "The church also has reaped rewards for its support." "The patriarch said he did not own a Breuget watch worth at least $30,000." "Worth at least $30,000." "However, a picture of Kirill on the church's own website told a different story." "The graphic artist forgot to take out a reflection of the watch on the glasstop table when he eliminated it from Kirill's wrist." "The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirll, he is driven in the huge black cars." "He's guarded by the state official guard, which has noting to do with the Russian Orthodox Church, because the Russian church, it's not a government institution." "It's just an independent social organization, but he is guarded like the president." "But he is guarded like the president." "Church goers are especially incensed about the Pussy Riot protest." "According to Russia's oldest sociological studies organization, over the last 16 years, the number of Russians who go to church increased from 57% to 71%." "Increased from 57% to 71%." "When the initial trial was held, the volunteer organization, Danilovsky, gave us a positive recommendation that Masha is a volunteer member." "This organization is in a monastery." "She worked with religious people." "Masha dealt with them, worked with them, and they together visited children at the hospital." "She does not have any religious hatred." "The organization director was fired from the monastery by the personal request of the Patriarch Kirill." "By the personal request of the Patriarch Kirill." "She's ready to defend everybody, an exaggerated sense of help." "This is the way she is, a sense of justice." "I believe in God." "I am a Christian, but it seems to me currently there is no God in the church." "It's only my opinion." "I talk about it with much pain." "I talk about it with much pain because I was baptized when I was 33 years old, absolutely, consciously, when I lost two of my friends." "Pussy Riot's imprisonment is the most recent well-known example of suppression of free speech." "However, government control of mass media is nearly complete." "The government operates all three free television stations in Russia." "Propaganda about Pussy Riot was rampant, representing them as snakes and other evil symbols." "Representing them as snakes and other evil symbols." "Only three independent mass communication outlets continue to operate " "The Echo of Moscow radio station;" "Independent Russian cable television channel, Top Secret;" "And one newspaper, Novaya Gazeta." "Well, of course, media should be much more free, and they should not make propaganda or brainwashing, and they should not make propaganda or brainwashing, but they should show some real problems." "And it's a pity that, maybe most brilliant journalists, they are pushed from such governmental media, and there remain only the worst ones." "And when journalists start to investigate this, then they receive some calls from somewhere, and the people who are calling them, they are saying that, "Hey, do you need any problems?" "They are saying that, "Hey, do you need any problems?" "If you really want problems in your life, then OK, go on with your investigation." "For somebody, this kind of call is enough to stop any kind activity of this kind." "But for some journalist, this call is not enough." "They are more brave, and they continue their investigations." "True investigation has ceased to exist." "Has ceased to exist." "People are afraid to do it." "The newpapers publish what the representatives of the authorities "drain," as we say it in Russia, drain the information to make their competition look bad." "Since Putin came to power in 2000, more than 198 journalists have been killed in Russia." "One of the most prominent, Anna Politkovskaya, also headed the Russian Duma's Defense Council." "According to the Committee to Protect Journalists," "I believe that Russia is one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist, places to be a journalist, and it is certainly the most dangerous country to be a journalist while it is supposedly at peace." "Officially, there's no war in this country, yet we lose as many journalists every year as countries that are actually going through wars." "It is also extremely high on the Committee to Protect Journalist's Impunity Index, which is an index that shows what happens after journalists are murdered or attacked." "After journalists are murdered or attacked." "And what happens is nothing." "I'm not aware of any cases where somebody was - any recent cases - where the murderer of a journalist was found and properly prosecuted or where the murder or the attack was properly investigated." "I believe that Putin has created a system where critics of the regime fall outside the law." "Where critics of the regime fall outside the law." "Whether it's the Kremlin that gives the command to have somebody killed, or somebody else who feels his toes have been stepped on, you can kill journalists." "It's open season." "For journalists, life expectancy is not very high." "I would say in general, life is quite a dangerous thing." "If you want to live long and happily, go to Finland." "Many journalists take the safe path of government propaganda of government propaganda and work for the three government TV channels and government newspapers." "This means objective political reporting is non-existent in most media for Russians who cannot afford Internet or cable television." "And even the Internet is being censored." "In July 2012, the Russian state Duma passed a bill that created a blacklist of Internet sites considered illegal in Russia." "All Pussy Riot videos have been blocked." "With journalism, our government decided to buy all of them." "Last one week, at a big interview with our Minister of Culture" "He's not bad person - but nobody asked about Pussy Riot." "If there would be discussions on TV, if the opposition leaders were allowed to show up on the federal TV, they were not allowed in the election time they were not allowed in the election time before elections, just no one." "The Internet generation no longer needs to rely on print or television for its news." "Recent reports are that 49 percent of Russians now access the Internet." "These Russians, 40 and under, make up the vast majority of the opposition movement." "Dmitry Gudkov is one of them." "A member of the Duma, he has participated in opposition demonstrations he has participated in opposition demonstrations and was recently kicked out of the United Russia party, essentially the only political party in Russia." "Gudkov is facing ethics violations from the Duma for taking part in a US conference on corruption and democracy." "Who do you think could replace." "Putin now?" "Who do you think is a worthy politician?" "I would very much like to invite to this position." "Mikhail Khodorkovsky." "Progressive ideas about democracy and business have deteriorated since the conviction have deteriorated since the conviction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky." "Once a member of Putin's inner oligarch circle, he had begun to back the opposition financially and became a political threat to Putin." "Business was very rapidly developing, civilized ways of doing business." "Actually, Mikhail Khordorvsky is the best example of that." "He had this incredible conversion in 1998, and he became this guru and he became this guru of good corporate governance and transparency and did amazing stuff to his company and for his company." "Khodorkovsky has very small chance to be president, because he's Jew, because he's very rich and people don't like rich and too clever, but small chance he has." "And if he's in prison, he has no chance, and this is what they decided to do." "And this is what they decided to do." "Opposition activist Alexi Navalny met the same fate." "A lawyer and blogger, he announced as a candidate for mayor of Moscow in July 2013, and shortly thereafter, received a suspended sentence on embezzlement charges." "A conviction blocks any chance to run for political office." "Pussy Riot bravely tested Article 44 of the Russian Constitution at the most important church in Moscow." "At the most important church in Moscow." "Russian artists and gallery owners like Marat Guelman, however, deal with the threat of supression daily, particularly when church and state band together." "And when Russian artists use sometimes Bible, like text, sometimes ikons, like images in contemporary art, they say, "No." "It's impossible." "Why, no?"" "they say, "No." "It's impossible." "Why, no?"" "And it is our discussion." "We try to explain how old is this story, conflicts between church and art." "And maybe it is not only Russia, but in Russia it's become more bloody, this situation, yes, because, for example, if the Catholic Church when they say, "No," to Caravaggio," "they say, "No."" "They don't kill him." "They don't buy his art." "They don't kill him." "They don't buy his art." "Our Orthodox Church, they don't say, "No,"" "because we don't exhibit this contemporary art in the churches." "We exhibit in the museums, in galleries." "They say, "No, we must put artists to the prison."" "They say, "No, we must put artists to the prison."" "We tried to explain it during the trial." "We would say all the time that this is a political art, feminist art, that we are a feminist group." "It was important for us to do this from the feminist perspective as well because it is known how the Russian Orthodox Church views women." "They have very distinct attitudes toward women." "For example, a woman could never be a priest." "For example, a woman could never be a priest." "Women have to hide their head by wearing a scarf." "You have to wear a specific kind of clothing." "Jeans are not allowed." "You can't laugh loudly." "You can't express your emotions." "There are quite a bit of restrictions on women's behavior." "Maybe there are some sexual aspects because they were females, and the repressions from Putin, it's like patriarchal response to what these girls do, it's like patriarchal response to what these girls do, and I think there is a lot of sexism" "in all these oppressions because Putin he shows himself as a strong male, and for him, it's like offensive that some women they dare to make something against him, and many people watch this." "I see more potential in art to influence people's thoughts, thinking, and to change the society, rather than the classical bureaucratic system." "Rather than the classical bureaucratic system." "When a person sings, he or she is already asserting himself louder." "We remember Michelangelo." "We remember Phidias." "But we don't remember who was a politician at that time." "We don't remember who was in power." "They are a pygmy of history." "They swell up in one moment, then blow up and disappear." "They swell up in one moment, then blow up and disappear." "We wipe the spit from our face and say," ""Here's Leonardo." "Here's Pussy Riot." "Here's Malevich."" "They describe the era, and they describe it in a work of art." "This is a painting." "This is a sculpture." "This is a performance." "The Cathedral of Christ the Savior is already called the Cathedral of Pussy Riot." "This is not a joke." "This is how it is, and I think it will go down in history and I think it will go down in history as Pussy Riot Cathedral." "I think that they speak contemporary political language and that made people listen to them." "It made people hear them who never would have been interested in Russia otherwise." "I think that's one of the most interesting things about actually, the Pussy Riot phenomenon is the fact that I think that they did for Putin's Russia what Solzhenitsyn did for the late Soviet Union what Solzhenitsyn did for the late Soviet Union" "with the publication of the Gulag Archipelago." "It completely shifted Western public opinion." "And that's exactly what happened with Pussy Riot because they exposed the society for the medieval, backward society that it is." "And contemporary art... people who want that Russia be part of the international world, and they want that we will have real future." "And they want that we will have real future." "And all our conflicts, it is conflicts between these two systems." "There is big - maybe majority - of people, not only our government who want that Russia be closed, that Russia will be very traditional." "And there are some people who want that Russia be part of the world and look to the future." "Be part of the world and look to the future." "Why doesn't the Constitution work?" "Russian citizens are acutely aware of the reasons." "They cite three major barriers to democracy:" "Rampant corruption, absolute power at the top, and Russian history." "Surveys are used to gather the World Corruption Perception Index." "It is closely watched by investors and economists and thus affects business development." "Russia ranks with Iran in corruption at 133 out of 176 countries." "At 133 out of 176 countries." "Denmark, Finland and New Zealand are the least corrupt." "The US is 19 and the UK 17 on the index." "Why corruption has been such a unifying issue in this country because people understand why they're not getting good government." "Russia is not a very rich country." "It's a poor country." "Don't look at these new Russians which drive Bentleys and Mercedes and BMWs which drive Bentleys and Mercedes and BMWs and who knows what." "This is not Russia." "These are people who made money by the administrative connections or just stole these money." "Just literally stole money." "The state gives you the money to build the hotel." "You take half of this money for yourself, and the other half you build the hotel." "Then you don't have enough money." "You ask again for the state." "They ask you, "Why are you asking?" "You had a lot of money."" "Then you bribe them with the money you took for yourself," "Then you bribe them with the money you took for yourself, and they give you more money, then you build your hotel, and it goes for years." "So we have a lot of these kinds of things, not only in the building industry, but almost everywhere." "This is a huge, big problem, so these are new Russians." "Of course, not all of them are like this, but the vast majority are like this." "We have the highest price to build the roads, more higher than in Finland or in Sweden, up in the North." "Pussy Riot show us that our system is absolutely repressive." "That our system is absolutely repressive." "What it mean repressive?" "Of course, if somebody kills somebody, he will be in the prison." "Repressive when the law looks only in one direction." "I think that Franco said that, "For friends, all;" "For enemies, law."" "Until the recent demonstrations and the scrutiny Pussy Riot prompted toward the entire Russian system, toward the entire Russian system, average citizens seemed to accept rampant corruption in business and government as part of life." "Yet, when legitimate business people like Yana Yakovleva experience it, the reality is shocking." "And we were naiïve or stupid enough to ask how you receive this money, and they say, "In envelopes."" "It was pretty strange because they are official government policemen and stuff, because they are official government policemen and stuff, and they offer us these kinds of things." "It was" " I'm not-- Was scared at the time." "I just think they are mad." "They are crazy because I cannot expect that this kind of activities exist, and this activity came to our office." "Are there thieves in the United States?" "When these people get caught, and you may be absolutely sure that if his crime is proven, and you may be absolutely sure that if his crime is proven, then they will definitely be sentenced." "So what's the sickness in Russia?" "That the power does not allow its highest bureaucrats to be sentenced, even to be revealed." "Thanks to the overwhelming." "Thanks to the overwhelming support of our voters, this is a fair and honest victory." "Well, I think the worst problem of today's Russia is a very vertical structure where everything is very much controlled by the government, namely the president and his friends, oligarchs." "And this has coincided with total legal nilism." "With total legal nilism." "No one does anything by the law." "Economically and financially, you can see the corporation lists where there are known Putin people - how they are organized." "It's not a secret to anybody." "This vertical of power, this authoritarian system, it still exists." "And it blocks any possibility to change anything." "And it blocks any possibility to change anything." "The rich, complex history of Russia is both a barrier to genuine democracy and a source of great pride for the Russian people." "For centuries, the country has been ruled by autocratic leaders, from the tsars to Putin." "Only 150 years ago, many Russians lived as serfs, virtual slaves to landowners." "A sense of justice is not developed in Russians." "Is not developed in Russians." "We didn't have time to experience freedom and responsibility after serfdom." "And right after the revolution, we ended up in a different yoke." "And it happens that Russians and post-Soviet people did not experience freedom." "Therefore, they don't have a sense of justice." "If a person does not have a sense of responsibility and freedom, he cannot be a citizen." "Therefore, it's very hard for us to form a civil society." "Therefore, it's very hard for us to form a civil society." "We have nobody to form it from." "No one has told us to go back to our cages, but we are already standing in line to get back into them." "Who has what number?" "God forbid, we won't have enough space." "Why?" "Because we were all born in cages, my friends, and genetics have not been set aside yet." "And genetics have not been set aside yet." "Even young activists are not immune to these so-called genetics, like Nadia's husband whose idea of harassment is different than a US citizen would describe." "Harassed is a very vague word, you know, like everywhere, harassed in Central Africa is not the same as harassed in Belgium." "So, from my point of view," "So, from my point of view," "I wouldn't use the word, "harassed."" "Although you get followed." "You're aware that your phone is tapped 100% of the time, and I've seen stacks of papers which were transcripts of phone conversations between me and my mom, transcribed by the FSB for some reason." "You basically don't make political talk with your mother on the phone." "So you sometimes get followed." "You can get detained for brief periods of time," "You can get detained for brief periods of time, and well, they try to clumsily apply the Russian law to you when it applies or when it does not apply." "So well, I wouldn't call all this harassment because harassed is what happened to the Russian political activist, Leonid Razvozzhaev, who tried to escape to the Ukraine and basically was kidnapped by FSB agents, taken back to Russia, beaten and threatened" "and made to sign these papers and made to sign these papers which admitted his guilt." "A history of enemies from the West invading Russia - from Napoleon to the German Kaiser - and constant government propoganda about external enemies also contribute to an isolationist paranoia." "Putin's latest moves show he is determined to limit outside influence." "After he returned to the presidency in 2012, parliament rubber-stamped a Kremlin-backed law requiring all non-governmental organizations requiring all non-governmental organizations that receive foreign funding to register as "foreign agents,"" "a term that many Russians find perjorative." "In March 2013, Russian prosecutors and tax police searched the Moscow headquarters of Amnesty International and several other rights groups." "They conducted unannounced audits and requested documents the government already had." "State controlled TV recorded it for propoganda purposes." "State controlled TV recorded it for propoganda purposes." "We have such an expression - the Atlantic influence." "It means alien, mean, evil, evil influence in Russia." "Do the majority of Russians know or care about the murders, inprisonments and corruption that are endemic in their country?" "While the cities grow rich from oil money and corruption, the far flung villages struggle daily." "The far flung villages struggle daily." "Vassa in the village of Kalachi is too busy surviving." "What freedom are we talking about?" "Vassa has given her life to the state." "She worked on a tractor." "One of her sons died in the army, and the other one got hurt and is disabled." "Here she is sitting without electricity, light or gas." "Here she is sitting without electricity, light or gas." "And what do you want from Vassa - for her to go to Moscow to a protest rally on a train that leaves only twice a week?" "Because of the recent prosperity in the cities under Putin, it seems many Russians are willing to overlook the crackdowns on the gains in freedom that began in the early '90s before his rise to power." "Still, the affluent now have financial ties to the West they don't want to lose." "They don't want to lose." "Putin has been extremely lucky with the oil prices." "In 1998, Russian crude oil was $8 a barrel, and it cost $12 to get it out of the ground." "Now it's been over $100 a barrel for years, so that's what you see in the streets of Moscow." "That's where the expensive cars and boutiques come from." "That's where the expensive cars and boutiques come from." "And I think, yes, that's accounted for much of Putin's popularity, which he had for a long time." "It's accounted for much of the so-called stability in this country, which is that people were building their personal fortunes, small or big, and didn't want to risk losing anything." "And it's also very difficult to wrap your mind around something as complicated as lack of political freedoms something as complicated as lack of political freedoms while you're living really, really well." "I mean, it's like you have to say to yourself, things are bad, but things are so wonderful." "What will it take to rid Russia of oppression and secure the freedom they see elsewhere?" "Can a new generation make it happen?" "Russia deserves to be a free and democratic country." "I don't see much difference between Russia and the US " "I don't see much difference between Russia and the US - not from the mental standpoint." "They are just as primitive as we are." "Why those primitives can live in a free country, and we primitives - we don't live in a free one." "It's unexplainable to me." "Many average Russians think Pussy Riot is an anti-Putin, blasphemous group that deserves to be punished." "Putin and the church simply want them to disappear." "Putin and the church simply want them to disappear." "But for those who have experienced the hammer of oppression, Pussy Riot's message is clear:" "We want freedom from fear." "We love our country, but our government must change." "What mean freedom?" "Freedom is when I'm not afraid to stand up and say aloud that I'm against." "That I want that my children should have good medicine," "That I want that my children should have good medicine, good education, and I want to have it here." "I don't want to go abroad." "Because I live here." "It's my motherland." "This is my home." "My family is here." "My friends are here." "I'm staying, and he should leave." "If we consider Russia, and if our president and if our authorities consider Russia as the civilized country, or at least the country which is going this way, or at least the country which is going this way," "to become more and more civilized, more and more cultural, then of course Russia has to follow the human rules, even those rules that who are not written, but there are some moral, human rules." "We have to develop the culture of protest which does not exist." "In Russia, it's only starting to revive." "To educate oneself." "To see what was happening in other countries at different times and take only the best, at different times and take only the best, and bring it to Russia." "They only took a step back under public pressure from both Russian society and Western society." "If there is someone we are really grateful for that we have been released ahead of time, that we have been released ahead of time, it is not Vladimir Putin and his Duma, but it is the people who have tirelessly supported us" "and remembered us." "And remembered us." "Start with Pussy Riot and never stop." "The fight for freedom is an eposidal that is bigger than life." "Pussy Riot has become a symbol of free speech." "Whether we agree with their artistic expression or not, the desire to be free and to speak without fear is an intrinsic desire of the human existence that cannot and will not be denied." "Only time will tell if the women of Pussy Riot have made a lasting impact on change in Russia." "Have made a lasting impact on change in Russia." "Only time will tell if the music of freedom can survive in Russia."