2 members of Pussy Riot flee Russia
Posted August 27, 2012 7:18 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Two members of Russia’s anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot have fled the country to avoid prosecution for staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin at a church altar, the band said on Sunday.
A Moscow court sentenced three members of the all-female opposition band to two years in prison on Aug. 17 for staging a “punk prayer” at a Moscow cathedral in February, calling on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.
Police said earlier this week they were searching for other members of the band.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were convicted on charges of hooliganism and inciting religious hatred for storming the altar of Christ the Saviour Cathedral in their trademark brightly-coloured dresses, balaclavas and tights.
Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) deputy director Tanya Lokshina told Reuters on Aug. 18 that despite the harsh sentence, the international attention to the case was a victory for the defendants.
“It took the Pussy Riot case for many people to understand what Putin’s Russia was all about, so at this point in time, the trial itself almost stands out as a sort of a ‘trial of the century’,” Lokshina said.
Members of the group and their attorneys said their protest was against Putin’s close ties to the church, not meant to offend believers. 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 United States, Britain and the European Union have denounced the sentence as “disproportionate” and questioned Russia’s commitment to freedom.
