Watched the above Monday evening, Sundance award-winning documentary which tells the compelling story of how a group of young, feminist punk rokers known as Pussy Riot have captured the world' attention by protesting against Putin's Russia. Through first-hand interviews with band members their fsmilies and the defense team, and exclusive footage of the trial, it highlights the forces that transformed these women from playful political activists to modern-day icons.
In early 2012 , members of the collective donned their colourful trademark balaclavas and paricipated in a 40-second 'punk prayer protest' on the altar of Moscow's cathedral. Once arrested, Nadia, Masha and Katia were accused of religious hatred in a trial that triggered protests and arrests in Russia and caused uproar around the world. The film reveals the personal motivesand courage of the women behind the balaclava and exposes the state of Russian justice through the courts final verdict.
Meanwhile it has been reported by Russian media that Nadehda Tolokonnikova, who is serving a two-year sentence for her part in the anti-kremlin stunt, has been moved to another prison, but the defence has no information on her current whereabouts. Her lawyer told the RAPSI news agency on Monday, " Nadya is no longer in the prison colony. Investigative procedures were planned for today. I arrived, and the investigator told me that Tolokonnikova was not there; I was in shock. He was told that she had been transferred, but where to, we don't know," Khrunova said.
It is believed she is being transported to the Penal Colony in Nizhny Tagil, in the Sverlovsk Territory, not Siberia but still almost 1800 KM from her familylawyers and supporters. Tolokonnikova was hospitalised on October 1 after staging a nine-day hunger strike in protest against prison conditions. Last month Tolokonikova, 23 published a letter that described in graphic detail the brutal conditions inside prison colony IK-14 in Mordovia, where she had been serving since after the end of her trial in August last year. She alleged prisoners work up to 17 hours a day for six or seven days a week, are deprived of toilet access and washing facilities, and are subject to regular beatings. http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/23/pussy-riot-hunger-strike-nadezhda-tolokonnikova.
Her jailed fellow Pussy Riot member, Maria Alekhina has withdran her early release plea in solidarity with her bandmate.
Let us remember that the members of Pussy Riot were punished by a draconian authority, purely on politically motivated grounds. Their right to free speech curtailed, and they remain prisoners of conscience.
Hopefully they will remain brave and strong and are not simply forgotten, and the world continues to demand their absolute freedom.
FREE PUSSY RIOT
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