Nelson Jones

Belief, disbelief and beyond belief

Pussy Riot's protests threaten more than just the Putin regime

The treatment of Pussy Riot says much about the close relationship between Church and Kremlin in Putin's Russia.

By Nelson Jones Published 31 July 2012 13:29

Nadia Tolokonnikova inside a defendants' cage in court. Photograph: Getty Images

The arrest and prosecution of three members of the Russian female punk collective Pussy Riot looks to many foreign observers as a purely political event, and one that reveals the increasing authoritarianism and intolerance of the Putin government.

Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda (Nadia) Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samutsevitch were arrested in March after footage of Pussy Riot protesing at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was posted on YouTube. On 21 February the group had invaded the cathedral's sanctuary (an area normally off-limits to worshippers) and sung a satirical "prayer" to rid Russia of Vladimir Putin, who was then seeking re-election. The performance lasted under a minute. The three women, all of whom are in their twenties and two of whom have young children, have been in prison ever since, forbidden even from seeing their partners. Their trial began yesterday, when once again they were denied bail. They face up to seven years in jail if convicted, and acquittals in Russia are rare.

Pussy Riot's cathedral stunt was one of several public protests the group staged against Putin in the run-up to this year's presidential election, and their treatment fits a pattern of official clampdowns on consent. In June, for example, Putin signed into law new and stronger penalties for public order offences that many saw as aimed at frustrating peaceful and legitimate political protest. There's little faith, either inside or outside Russia, in the independence of the judiciary. The arrest and unusually harsh treatment of the three women, many believe, must have been ordered from the very top and thus reflect the personal vindictiveness of the president who was, after all, the target of the protest.

But the case also throws a spotlight on the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church and especially its head, Patriarch Kirill. According to Peter Verzilov, husband of one of the imprisoned women, it was only after the Patriarch saw the video that any move was made to identify and arrest the women involved. Originally, the police had taken no action, but on seeing the footage the patriarch had personally contacted both Putin and the head of the Moscow police.

Kirill has certainly been vocal in his condemnation of Pussy Riot, describing the group's action as "blasphemy" and telling a rally in April that the church was "under attack by persecutors". He objected strongly to "derision of the sacred" being "put forth as a lawful expression of human freedom which must be protected in a modern society." The church leadership has demanded that the three women be punished severely for their act of desecration.

Western reporting has downplayed the sacrilegious nature of the women's performance, seeing it primarily as a political stunt. Perhaps it was. But it was also genuinely shocking in a religious culture that still retains (unlike much Western Christianity) a sense of the numinous and of sacred space. Russian Orthodoxy is a religion rooted in experience rather than doctrine. Its founding myth concerns a delegation sent by Prince Vladimir of Kiev to Constantinople which returned awestruck by the beauties of the Byzantine church: "We knew not whether we were on earth or in heaven." Ever since, Russian Orthodox churches and services, with their icons, clouds of incense and intense, deep-voiced choruses, have represented an attempt to recreate heaven on earth.

Kirill's spokesman, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, has compared Pussy Riot's action and its effect on believers to the burning of the Koran and said that he was "deeply concerned about the future of any society in which extremely divisive actions are ignored."

Not all the Russian Orthodox faithful agree. Many have protested against the harshness of the church's official position - one seemingly uninformed by Christian ideals of forgiveness and turning the other cheek - and called for the women's release. It's no doubt convenient for Putin to leave it to the church hierarchy to condemn the protests. By ensuring that the women are treated harshly he is not merely reinforcing the message that no dissent is to be tolerated but also burnishing his neo-Tsarist credentials as defender of Orthodoxy.

When he was elected in 2009, Kirill was initially seen as a more moderate figure than his predecessor Alexy II, a former KGB agent whose strident nationalism had, on occasion, embarrassed even Putin. But he has been both politically and personally close to the president. He is often seen at the president's side, sometimes sporting an expensive-looking watch, while for his part Putin (oddly, perhaps, for an ex-KGB man) has regularly been photographed taking part in religious ceremonies. In the run-up to this year's election Kirill even praised Putin as "a miracle from God", sent to deliver Russia from the "horrible, systemic crisis" of the Yeltsin years.

I can't imagine any British prime minister getting such an endorsement from any Archbishop of Canterbury. But then the Russian Orthodox Church is not the Church of England. In Tsarist times, it was the sacred embodiment of the state, completely subordinated to the ruling dynasty. Even under a Communist regime that, at its height, bulldozed churches or turned them into Museums of Atheist Thought, the leadership of the Orthodox Church remained politically docile. A former dissident priest, Gleb Yakunin - who spent five years in a detention camp and was later elected to Parliament - was shocked by the extent of church-state collaboration when he gained access to the archives in the late 1990s. The church, he concluded, had been "practically a subsidiary of the KGB".

Nevertheless, the end of communism marked the political rehabilitation of the Orthodox church and has seen it steadily grow in influence - a change symbolised by the rebuilding of Christ the Saviour which had been bulldozed by Stalin to make way for a swimming pool. This is partly why Pussy Riot's protest caused such a scandal: it was aimed not just at the authoritarianism of the Putin regime but at the privileges that the church has enjoyed for giving it unquestioning religious and moral legitimacy.

Special Offer: Get 12 issues of New Statesman magazine for just £12

Tags: Vladimir Putin Pussy Riot Russia

More from Nelson Jones

View the discussion thread.

36 comments

Sun, 2012-10-07 12:43 — Stephen Verges (not verified)

As an ex-roadie for the Bad Brains ... P Riot is funded by Voice of America. Voice of America by way of the American Smith-Mundt act won't let anyone in the United States hear what type of propaganda is being pumped into Putin-Sphere. Is this punk rock? No. It is scumbag 2201 C Street - United States State Department propaganda. The United States army has a military command term for it - USACAPOC. United States Army Civil Affairs Psychological Operations Command. Are P Riot performing a Joe Strummer "Radio Clash"? Their handlers are. If this is the consumer protection website of the year when was the last story written on a jailing issue which didn't concern all the political facts and financiers? Who is more stupid the writer of the article or the editor for not seeing the Rhodes "glory hole" of facts which would suggest my polemics aren't paid for by Russia and understand the feeding trough of American propaganda dollars. America has no use for the Orwell's "Animal Farm" when it has a hog trough which encircles the world for anyone who wants propaganda money.

Fri, 2012-09-14 04:52 — Jyri Kokkonen (not verified)

By this time of writing, their 15 minutes of fame soon appear to have been used up.

Wed, 2012-09-05 16:35 — Will Podmore (not verified)

The Pussy Riot incident is just part of a US State Department effort to destabilise Russia. The US state has consistently used human rights incidents to hit at Russia. Amnesty International has been a useful patsy in this effort. That Amnesty supports the US State Department’s agenda should be no surprise, its Executive Director Suzanne Nossel was previously the US State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Organizations.

In its most recent 2012 annual report (page 4, .pdf), Amnesty states, “Amnesty International is funded mainly by its membership and public donations. No funds are sought or accepted from governments for investigating and campaigning against human rights abuses. Amnesty International is independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion.”
But on page 11 of Amnesty International Limited’s 2011 Report and Financial Statement it states,
“The Directors are pleased to acknowledge the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Oak Foundation, Open Society Georgia Foundation, the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Programme, Mauro Tunes and American Jewish World Service. The UK Department for International Development (Governance and Transparency Fund) continued to fund a four year human rights education project in Africa. The European Commission (EuropeAid) generously awarded a multi-year grant towards Amnesty International’s human rights education work in Europe.”
So its annual report is a lie.

Wed, 2012-08-22 03:34 — Jon Brawn (not verified)

What if the girlfriends of the EDL did the same at the Regent's Park Mozzy hangout??? Ninja Pussy Mutants 2. Lefties would be so buzzing angry!!!!!

Tue, 2012-08-21 21:06 — Tara (not verified)

you can help go on pussyriot.name

Sat, 2012-08-11 18:38 — Roger the Cat (not verified)

I hold no particular brief for Putin and his oligarch pals, but in terms of post-cold war anti-Russian propagandist codswallop this should win a bronze medal at least. If Pussy Riot had carried out the same performance in front of say, the high altar of Westminster Abbey, the police would have been there in 3 minutes flat and armed with Tasers. By now PR would have been up before the Beak and given a hefty fine and community service or possibly prison.

This is the way we deal with descent in this country. You do not have to look to far to see the increasingly repressive way in which people who demonstrate or are ‘off message’ in some way are treated in the West - notably both here in the UK and in the US. The actual riots in London rather that the Pussy sort returned a large number of disproportionate sentences.

Wed, 2012-08-15 20:26 — Zina (not verified)

Good afternoon. Unfortunately I badly know English therefore I write this letter with the help the Internet of the translator. I Russian, live in Moscow. All of you so like to protect in the West Pussi Riot, but what you know about them? You think, in Russia them don't love only what they sang obscene songs? No, it not their first obscene trick. These ladies are known long ago in Russia. As though you treated people who at the height of day in one of the best museums of your country arranged group sex before eyes of children and tourists? Before protecting these people, learn about them more... And these girls made many disgusting acts and time that them punished came. Thanks that read...

Fri, 2012-08-10 19:11 — myouz (not verified)

This article is pure junk and shows how the so called left have succumbed to the anti Putin bandwagon. If the British equivalanet had committed similar acts at the royal wedding or opening of Parliament, would we be so forgiving. The NS is losing its edge.

Fri, 2012-08-10 19:11 — myouz (not verified)

Fri, 2012-08-10 08:48 — Stephen Verges (not verified)

By submitting this form, I fight hordes of Morloks -

Dear New Statesman, if these comments were made by my friends and your regular readers, we have something in common; we need more intelligent friends and readers ... just a few. Pussy Riot, that is the Voice of America band. Really, that is the VOA.GOV band. Because of the Smith-Mundt Act, much of the United States has no idea Pussy Riot is a front for some type childish western propaganda arm of VOA and the State Department. Why can't the U.S. be exposed to the propaganda it pumps out to others? Because Pussy Riot is a joke and some policy wonk was heading home from a think tank around the infamous Washington DC beltway, had an epiphany ... and wound up taking some of the 600 million dollar annual budget of VOA - rest is history? Not so ... NS and Mr. Jones ... the question that needs to be asked is this: "Will the VOA pay the bail for the women after the VOA paid for everything else ?"

If you want to publish actual stories for non-fiction journalism, pull freedom of information act requests or do serious research on the money train and why those girls are on it for State Department propaganda. Myself being an academician, you've b*********d your readers on this one. VOA is where Winston Smith would work ...

Tue, 2012-08-07 18:53 — davelong (not verified)

Well, Nelson, you certainly turned the loon-magnet up to 11 with this one. Good post.

Sun, 2012-08-05 10:35 — hugh markey (not verified)

Pussy-whipped? Just look what the Spice Girls did for the United Kingdom.

Aristocats

Wed, 2012-08-01 12:42 — HOPE FOR THE FUTURE (not verified)

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

We ARE in the midst of a crisis. As always happens before a birth, there is a lot of pain. The birth of a new order means much pain, and there will be growing pains. But our world has been implanted with a seed that is growing, and the efforts of those in higher places to destroy that seed, is failing.

Each day we pray "Thy will be done, as it is in Heaven". That IS going to happen. There'll be many changes; there'll be many break-ups, upheavals and difficulties. There is, however, a Power that is making for the progress of the world.

Arising now is a new race that will recognise that all politics, religion, science and knowledge, are part of the same thing. Then pain, sorrow, fear, mourning and unhappiness, will be banished, and our world will be a place of smiles and happy laughter. The greatest teacher that could come to our world today would be one who would lift the sorrows of others, and make the lives of others better.

We have built a world where, when one man has something, instead of using it to help others, he tries to keep it for himself. Because these foundations are wrong, the system must collapse. When we have people who use their gifts for the benefit of all others, then there will be built a system founded on eternal truth.

We have these gifts already, but they have been neglected and lie dormant, so it is necessary for us to develop them again. We have nearly destroyed our world by the folly of our ways. Slowly however, it is coming back.

We have people who have too little to eat, and we have people who have too much to eat. That of course, is totally wrong. We have to divide the things we have amongst everybody. People will say that it is impossible, but it is possible and it is the only way.

The Law of God is perfect and cannot be cheated. We must learn these Laws and put them into operation. If we live our lives seeking to serve others, then God works through us.

Slowly the Light of God has been penetrating the darkness of our world, and out of the ruins of chaos and disorder, there is being built up a new world, where there can be no inequality, no injustice, no division of those who have too much from those who have too little, and where all will be evenly spread. These are the things our world needs, the simple truths that will enable spiritual, mental and material freedom.

Great work will be achieved when all those who are conscious of spiritual truth, band themselves together and use their power to dissipate the fog of darkness that has arisen in our world. Let us go forward with great confidence, knowing that all the forces of goodness, helpfulness and service are at our side.

Let us seek to make our world realise the great Power of God, so that, armed with that knowledge, we can fight all superstition and all that belongs to the mists of darkness, and allow the light of spiritual truth to radiate it's glorious beams.

It doesn't matter what we call this new world, but it's the World of God coming into fulfillment, accompanied by His power and the service of faithful hearts, who seek to bring new joy, new life and new happiness into our world. That is why you are urged to help. We will work together and the work will go on.

It cannot be stopped now.

Thu, 2012-08-02 07:46 — htmuirhead (not verified)

So it's inevitable but you need our help? Um, maybe this is just one of the non sequiturs that you need to investigate.

Wed, 2012-08-01 12:39 — myouz (not verified)

If a similar stunt was pulled at the royal wedding or the Olympic ceremony, would we still be supporting the Pussycat Dolls. Sheer hypocrisy!!!

Thu, 2012-08-16 11:39 — Crae (not verified)

But they didn't pull the stunt during a ceremony or the Olympics. They did it while the church was empty. The video lasts 39 seconds.

Wed, 2012-09-05 06:03 — Astaroth (not verified)

No need to replace the concept of "not been a church service," and "the church was empty." And so the legend of the "heroic girls - freedom fighters." In Russia, they laugh at you. What are you naive. What do you tell your politicians, you perceive as the only truth. We do so in the Soviet Union was.

Wed, 2012-08-01 11:01 — Antichronicler (not verified)

Tsar? KGB? Well done, British. Let's speak about yours colonial orders in India or about yours concentration camps in South Africa during Anglo-Boer War. I'm a young Russian historian and my point is Pussy Riots are stupid cunts who made their "performance" to enlarge problems inside Russia. There is not any idea beneath slogan "Putin get out". Such destructive thoughts could led to crysis. Russian opposition is a teenager who desires to brake father's home, nothing more.

Wed, 2012-08-01 11:29 — Viktor (not verified)

They don't want to listen whats want russian. They want to help us with NATO, and weapons. Not it calls bring the freedom.
But the russian nuclear weapon is the reason to stop it.

Wed, 2012-08-01 09:24 — Viktor (not verified)

It seems to me that the regime could not survive OBAMA to the elections and the new dictator comes to power in the United States.
Such a large prison as the United States should have a good king.

Wed, 2012-08-01 09:10 — Viktor (not verified)

и вот еще... сколько можно вашим проституткам - журналистам оскорблять мою страну?
Сидите в вашей грязной помойке стране!
Не нравится? Вот и мне не нравится когда порядок в моей стране называют "режимом".
Ваш сраный диктатор и того не заслуживает!

Wed, 2012-08-01 09:12 — Viktor (not verified)

and here's another ... how much can your prostitutes - journalists insulted my country?
Sit in your dirty garbage country!
Do not like it? So I do not like when the order in my country called the "regime".
Your fu_cking dictator, and that does not deserve!

Wed, 2012-08-01 09:02 — Viktor (not verified)

I hope they will stay there for a lot of month!
Americans cann't say to russians what to do. You are not a god!
We dont need an american democracy - we have our own!
GET OUT YOUR dirty and bloody (Iraq and etc) hands from my country!

95% of russins don like this bitches. It is true!

Wed, 2012-08-01 07:10 — carkic (not verified)

Don't confuse Pravo slavni (Orthodox) Christians with the Roman Catholic church and it's transgressions against the basic tenants of moral or religious beliefs. The Orthodox church does not allow celibate priests, jazz bands on the altar, or new practices to go with the flow of 'liberal' thought, nor has it ever taken part in a crusade to spread their beliefs.
Orthodoxy wins converts by example. I witnessed this in Rio where the Orthodox priest of a tiny church to fit no more than 30 individuals had congregated around the church ground about a thousand Brazilian converts. This in a strongly catholic country. The priest spoke no Portuguese, only Russian, yet the people came.
The Orthodox church is not a political organ. It has endured two thousand years of politicians and governments. God willing it will endure many more millennia. Mir Bozije - Peace be with you.

Wed, 2012-08-01 02:35 — Rick Mc Callister (not verified)

I truly admire those women, even if I can't stop laughing every time I hear the name of their band on the puritanical US airwaves. To paraphrase Che Guevara: "One, Two, Three, Many Pussy Riots" is something the world is in dire need of. I wish the best for them and for a democratic Russia some day soon.

Wed, 2012-08-15 20:20 — Zina (not verified)

Fri, 2012-08-03 15:33 — lidia (not verified)

last time I have checked, Che was NOT supported by USA imperialists. They ARE. It is not a joke that not only "puritanical", but mass-murderers imperialist USA supports such "riots". It tells me enough NOT to support them. Just like the support by USA to Libyan or Syrian "revos".

Tue, 2012-07-31 20:29 — Davidaslindsay (not verified)

"Pussy Riot" sounds like a Bond Girl. Or, at least, it did until the Queen became a Bond Girl. In fact, it is the name of a "feminist punk rock collective" of apparently grown women who nevertheless call themselves a "feminist punk rock collective" by the name of "Pussy Riot".

Such are their look-at-me antics that they are in fact a criminal conspiracy, and at last someone has insisted that they be treated as such. Specifically, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has so insisted. The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which they have defiled, was previously demolished on the orders of Stalin in order to make way for a swimming pool.

Its restoration embodies the restoration of Holy Russia, pre-eminent among the Slavs in their age-old mission of defending the true Western civilisation that is the recapitulation in Jesus Christ and His Church of all three of the Old Israel, Hellenism and the Roman Empire, at least as much against the godless, rootless, usury-based, stupefied, promiscuous pseudo-West as against anything else.

That pseudo-West would seem to be summed up perfectly by this "Pussy Riot". Or are they demonstrating against the reversal of Stalinism? If so so, then they are in line with the only viable political alternative to Putin and Medvedev, the totally unreconstructed Communist Party of the Russian Federation, notable for its Soviet flags at demonstrations.

Banners on which British reporters cannot bring themselves to comment, any more than on the equally ubiquitous black, yellow and white of Russian ultranationalism in all its anti-modern, anti-urban, anti-scientific and anti-Semitic awfulness. Russian ultranationalism in opposition to the Russian Government. Have you got that?

If it is not those, then it is the Caucasian Islamists. Or else the National Bolsheviks, whose flag is that of Nazi Germany, but with a black hammer and sickle in place of the swastika. The National Bolsheviks are much loved by the BBC, and especially by Belarus-hating, but Uzbekistan-loving, Newsnight. Well, of course they are.

Thu, 2012-08-02 07:53 — htmuirhead (not verified)

No, Stalin wanted it to be the site of the palace of All the Soviets capped by a ginormous statue of Lenin until (1) the small fact that it would collapse into the mud became apparent and (2) Nazi invasion. At least (2) prevented the ones who reported (1) from being sent to Siberia simply for reporting the truth. It was Krushchev who turnined it into the largest open air swimming pool in the world, and to be very honest I think he had by far the best idea of all.