Pussy Riot Gets 2 Years: The three young women who comprise the band Pussy Riot committed a “serious crime” and “should be punished”, said judge Marina Syrova, sentencing them to two years of jail time at a corrective labor facility for “hooliganism” and “incitement to religious hatred.”
In the courtroom, the verdict was greeted by cries of “Shame!” and “Injustice!”
The sentence is not quite as severe as requested by the prosecution, which had sought for the three women to be jailed for three years.
But of course it will not be welcome news to Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, respectively 22 and 24 and both mothers of young children, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30.
The judge, Marina Syrova, made her statement for over two hours, prompting lawyers in the courtroom to look at each other quizzically, shrug and lean against the walls. Syrova quoted Pussy Riot’s “punk prayer” — sung in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour — as evidence of their guilt.
“The patriarch, he believes in Putin, but he’d better believe in God,” she quoted.
The three accused women seem energized by this and start singing in their glass cage, but later looked wan as they heard the outcome of their trial.
A poll published on the front page of the Vedomosti business daily today shows President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating slipping to a post-election low of 48 percent — a notable slide from the 60 percent he enjoyed around his May inauguration. via AFP
