Harvard Graduate Journalism Program
​​CULTURE AND POLITICS: PUSSY RIOT

August 4, 2012

​TEXT BY ALISA NIZHNIY

​

Cambridge, Mass.– Members of the Harvard community said they were frustrated but not surprised that the Russian government has kept three women of the punk band Pussy Riot jailed indefinitely for five months since their arrest after they performed a "protest prayer" in February at Russia's main cathedral in Moscow. 

 

Pussy Riot is an ever-expanding feminist collective of at least eight punk rocker women who perform anti-Putin protest songs while wearing colorful balaclavas to remain anonymous. The collective has staged protests around Moscow in the past, including one performance in Red Square as well as another on the Detention Center building rooftop, across from where December 5 post-election protesters were being detained. 

 

In February, Pussy Riot performed a "protest prayer" on the altar of Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, calling on the Virgin Mary to "throw Putin out," according to news reports. Pussy Riot was protesting against Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill's political support for Putin's presidential campaign in March. While nothing in the church was vandalized or damaged during the one-minute performance, according to news reports, Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, may face up to seven years in prison on charges of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred." The Russian court judge said she will issue a verdict next week. Members of the Harvard community said they believe that the outcome of the trial, if the women are found guilty, would continue to tarnish Russia's reputation among Americans.

 

"It's ludicrous," said Harvard student Kathryn Nassberg. "The Russian government is determined to make an example out of them. Russia is willing to forsake its long-term image for a political stab." 

 

Nassberg, 29, spent two years living in Moscow, working as an English teacher and translator. "After having been in power for over a decade, United Russia and Putin really don't know how to handle opposition," Nassberg said. "They don't know how to deal with protest, so their knee-jerk reaction is to repress." 

 

Nassberg said she believes that while Russia wants to be seen as democratic, the government's aggressive response to protesters continually damages Russia's already questionable reputation. "They try so hard to break away from their old Soviet image, and every time there's some sort of bump along the road, they seem to fall back into their old authoritarian stance," she said. "United Russia is trying to stomp down its opposition any way it knows how, trying to muzzle anyone who has a legitimate claim." Nassberg said she hopes that the women of Pussy Riot will be able to avoid further punishment if they receive enough sympathy from the international press.

 

"It's quite clear that Putin is attempting to limit the degree of dissident activity in Russia, and he is trying to intimidate and frighten people," said Professor Marvin Kalb, a Russian media expert at Harvard Kennedy School. "The most important thing right now is the way in which the Russian people respond to this." Kalb said he believes that Russia's reputation rests in the hands of the Russian people, depending on whether they will accept being silenced or whether they will continue to rush into the streets to protest. 

 

Kalb also said he believes that the relationship between the church and state in Russia will continue to fuse. "The church state relationship is getting closer by the day, and the church is saying things that it knows Putin wants to hear, and Putin is doing things to favor the church," he said. Kalb explained that many people in Russia feel that the protesters have the right to express their views but that they should not have done so in a church. "Ultimately, the young ladies could have achieved more of their aims if they had done it somewhere else and not in a church." 

 

However, one professor explained why he said he believes that performing in a church helped the women of Pussy Riot achieve their aims on an international level. Gordon Teskey, who teaches a course at Harvard called the Bible in the Humanities and the Arts, said that the insistence by the Russian Orthodox Church that Pussy Riot be punished reflects the classic balance of power presented by the Old Testament, where Pussy Riot is playing the ancient role of the prophet in society. 

 

"It is the role of the prophet to protest, and to do so in or near the temple, the center of priestly authority, although at some risk, as the prophets from Jeremiah to Jesus found," said Teskey. "That is exactly what Pussy Riot did: prophesy at the center of religious authority." 

 

Detlev Vagts, Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School, said he believes that the women will be sentenced to prison. "Russians' reputation on freedom of expression is very bad to begin with," he said. 

 

Vagts pointed out that Russia is a party to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Article 10 of the Convention states: Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. 

 

"Russia has notoriously slighted its obligations under the Convention and failed to carry out judgments rendered against it by the European Court of Human Rights in  Strasbourg," Vagts said. "I think there is nothing that Russia is likely to do to save its reputation."