The Russian feminist collective tells Index’s Elena Vlasenko they will continue to speak out, in spite of arrests and harassment
A Moscow court has confirmed the legality of the pre-trial detention of alleged Pussy Riot members Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Semutsevich.
The women had appealed against the Tagansky court decision detaining them until 24 June — when they will face a criminal trial on charges of hooliganism for allegedly staging an anti-Putin performance in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in the run-up to recent presidential elections. But the court has turned down their appeal.
Two of the three accused Pussy Riot members are mothers of young children. The maximum sentence for their charges is seven years in prison.
Tolokonnikova, Alekhina and Samutsevich deny the allegations and are considered prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International and other leading human rights activists in Russia and abroad.
The women’s arrests triggered an emotional public discussion about the Orthodox church’s relationship with Russian authorities and society. Radical nationalist movement members have been preventing activists from protesting against Pussy Riot arrests. The Church, led by patriarch Kirill, who publically supports Vladimir Putin, performed a public prayer in April “against blasphemers”. Kirill’s support of the Pussy Riot prosecution has concerned many religious Russians, who have petitioned for the release of the women.
Pussy Riot members who have not yet been arrested are now in hiding and are difficult to reach. They gave this exclusive email interview to Index on Censorship.
– Did you expect these consequences — arrests, criminal proceedings, your supporters being beaten and insulted by radical nationalists — when you planned your cathedral performance? Would you repeat the performance if you knew how this would end?
– We didn’t expect the arrest. We are a women’s group which is forced to consume the ideas of patriarchal conservative society. We experience each process that happens in this society. Besides, we are a punk band, which can perform in any public place, especially one which is maintained through our taxes. That’s why we would definitely repeat our prayer. It was worth it: look at the awakened pluralism — political and religious!
– The state remains intolerant towards much artistic expression. What about broader Russian society?
– We are trying to educate society and will definitely take the importance of this process into account in our further actions. We expect people to at least look through Wikipedia after watching us on YouTube.
– What must you do now to avoid arrests?
– After Putin’s inauguration, just wearing a white ribbon on your clothes — a symbol of protest — has become a reason for arrest in Moscow. So we don’t wear them now.
– Will you continue performing? You said that anonymity helps you replace the band members in case they get arrested. Have many people offered to join you?
– Many people have expressed their wish to participate in our perfomances and we are planning them right now. We don’t consider the patriarch’s ignorant opinion and are not going to perform any protest songs against him personally.
– The Russian Orthodox church, according to notable human rights activists, has lost its right to establish moral standards after having severely condemned you, as did some intellectuals who preferred not to notice your persecution. Who, in your perspective, is likely to take their place?
– We think that one can learn moral values through literature, music and art, but definitely not in church. And as far as people are concerned, any human being who advocates humanistic ideas should support any prisoner who has lost her freedom because the authorities are afraid to give up their power.
Russian gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseyev has been fined 5,000 roubles (104 GBP) under a St. Petersburg law for spreading “gay propaganda” among minors. The fine was imposed after the court ruled that Alekseyev had spread propaganda about homosexual relations among minors when he held a sign in a public place last month that stated homosexuality was not a “perversion.” Alekseyev has pledged to appeal the ruling.
Legislation banning promotion of “gay propaganda” has passed its first reading in Siberia. The bill, which prohibits the promotion of homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender practices among minors. The bill will also be debated in a final reading by lawmakers of Novosibirsk. Similar bills have been passed in several Russian regions, including the city of St. Petersburg.
A video posted online titled “All the Truth about Russians,” was ruled extremist by a Novosibirsk court on Monday. The video, posted on social networking sites by a man from the town of Berdsk who faces extremism charges in the case, has been removed and banned because it shows Russians in a negative light, the regional prosecutor said in a statement. It has been reported that audio accompanying the video included statements about “how easy Russian women are” and how Russian men “are not worthy of being called men”.
A St Petersburg judge has postponed a hearing faced by chairman of the Russian LGBT Network and an independent attorney under the city’s new anti-gay censorship law, as papers relating to the charge were found to be missing. The hearing, originally scheduled for 16 April, will now take place on 23 April. Attorney Sergey Kondrashov and LGBT Network chair Igor Kochetkov are charged with the promotion and propaganda of homosexuality as well as disobeying a police officer. They were arrested on 7 April in St Petersburg while protesting the new law with banners during a “Day of Silence”.
Index singles out The Research and Information Centre Memorial, which logs the brutal repression suffered by millions in former Soviet countries, for their continued dedication to guaranteeing freedom of information. The centre has demonstrated a fierce commitment to protecting human rights. It not only chronicles the crimes of the Stalinist period, but monitors current threats against those who speak out against injustice. Memorial’s remarkable archive includes letters, diaries, transcripts, photographs, and sound files. Individuals with first-hand experience of Stalin’s terror and the Soviet gulag have donated documentation they had hidden during this brutal period.
The centre is a living tribute to the survivors of Soviet Russia, preserving documentation that many have tried to bury, and continue to conduct their work despite constant threats. In December 2009, a group of men from the Investigative Committee of the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office raided Memorial’s offices, confiscating hard drives and CDs containing its entire archive. The attack was condemned by activists and historians across the globe, and eventually all of the material was returned after a battle in local courts.
Memorial’s work is a vivid reminder of the vital and very real risk taken by those who speak out against repression. The award is particularly pertinent in Index’s 40th year. As we explore our own archive and its role in exposing international human rights violations, we are conscious of the often undervalued work of historians and archivists in keeping the memory of these violations alive.
The award was presented by Sir Evelyn De Rothschild, one of Index’s original trustees.
Irina Flige, Director of Research and Information Centre Memorial in St Petersburg accepting the award said:
I thank you in the name of all Russian researchers, writers, teachers and museum specialists who are working on the tragic topic of the Soviet past
I am grateful for this opportunity to thank Index on Censorship and all our friends for the honour bestowed on the archives of Memorial St Petersburg on the occasion of Index’s 40th anniversary.
I thank you in the name of the Research and Information Centre “Memorial” in St Petersburg, which has created these archives and worked with them for more than twenty years. I thank you in the name of the whole “Memorial” community in Russia and beyond. And I thank you in the name of all Russian researchers, writers, teachers and museum specialists who are working on the tragic topic of the Soviet past and facing obstacles in their day-to-day work that are unknown to their colleagues in other countries.
I understand this Award for “Memorial” as a recognition of the fact that truthful and exhaustive information about the past is just as essential to freedom as truthful and exhaustive information about the present day, and that the concealment of historical documents, the impediment of access to such documents, the persecution of those who try to make such documents freely accessible (and this still happens sometimes in Russia) are just as unacceptable as the concealment of topical information about human rights violations today.”
Former Novaya Gazeta columnist Victoria Ivleva was deported from Uzbekistan in an incident she believes is linked to her work. Ivleva flew to Tashkent for a photo workshop last Friday, but was not allowed to leave the airport. She was then refused a meeting with the Russian consul and put on a flight back to Russia. Ivleva has said she believes the deportation was linked to an article she wrote almost five years ago about Uzbekistan called The Country of Fish. She has also expressed support for photographer Umida Akhmedova, who was persecuted by the authorities for a photo collection that highlighted gender inequality in Uzbekistan.
