In an unfortunate chain of events, provocative Russian Punk band, Pussy Riot, is sentenced to two years in prison for an Anti-Putin stunt and performance. According to a New York Times story, which broke earlier this morning, “A Moscow judge delivered a two-year prison sentence on Friday against three members of a punk band who staged a protest against Vladimir V. Putin in an Orthodox cathedral last February.”
A relatively unknown band to most in popular culture, the once-impending sentence and trial of Pussy Riot has drawn considerable attention and a wave of protests worldwide. Just last night in New York City, Chloe Sevigny, Eileen Myles, Karen Finley, Johanna Fateman, Mx Justin Vivian Bond and others gathered for a public reading of “inspirational courtroom statements” made by the detained members of the punk band.
In what seemed like a foreshadowing of their fates, Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova released the statement below on behalf of the group.
Letter from Nadya Tolokonnikova from prison #Pussyriot
Aug. 16th, 2012 at 8:27 PM
“I do not feel rage because I am in prison. I hold no grudge. There is no personal anger. But there’s political anger.
Our imprisonment has served as a clear and obvious sign that the whole country is being robbed of freedom. And this threat of annihilating the freeing, emancipatory forces in Russia – that’s what causes me to be enraged. Seeing the large in the small, the trend in the sign, the common in the individual.
Second-Wave Feminists said the personal is political. That’s how it is. The Pussy Riot case has shown how the individual troubles of three people facing charges of hooliganism can give life to a political movement. A single case of repression and persecution against those who had the courage to Speak in an authoritarian country has shaken the world: its activists, punks, pop stars, and government members, its comedians and ecologists, its feminists and its masculinists, its Islamic theologians, and those Christians who are praying for Pussy Riot. The personal has become political. The Pussy Riot case has brought together as one forces so multidirectional, I still have trouble believing this isn’t a dream. The impossible is happening in contemporary Russian politics: a demanding, persistent, powerful and consistent impact of society on its government.
I am thankful to everyone who has said “Free Pussy Riot!” Right now, all of us are participating a large and important political Event that the Putin regime is having an ever more difficult time controlling. Whatever the upcoming verdict for Pussy Riot, we – and you – are already winning. Because we have learned to rage, and to speak politically.
Pussy Riot is happy that we have been able to spur a truly collective action, and that your political passion has proven to be so strong, it has cleared the barriers of language, culture, surroundings, and economic and political status. Kant would say that he sees no other reason for this Miracle besides man’s moral beginning. Thank you for this Miracle.”
