The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been jailed for five years on what people describe as trumped-up charges of embezzlement. Jonathan Rugman reports for Channel 4.
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The sentencing touched off a massive, unauthorized protest on behalf of Navalny in Moscow. Riot police were dispatched to central Moscow as the protest continued, and dozens have been detained near Manezhnaya Square.
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HELEN DIAMOND
Moscow-based pin-up artist and burlesque dancer Helen Diamond might be the hottest contemporary star in Siberia — or, at least, one of the only stars who has made the circuit performing at Siberian nightclubs. Svelte and blonde, she’s does sensuous fan dances and classical strips to sultry jazz tunes.
Fanning the flames.
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Hot and smoky.
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Tumblr blog: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/helen-diamond
Shane Smith from Vice travels to Moscow and St. Petersburg to meet Russia’s underground filmmakers. Fueled by copious quantities of vodka, wild and crazy intellectual theories and old 35 mm cameras built as solidly as tanks, these artists on the fringe are producing some of the world’s most original movies. Many got their start under Perestroika in the 1980s and rallied behind a rowdy, rebellious movement they called “Parallel Cinema.” Now, amid rising fears of censorship and a return to a chilling Cold War zeitgeist, the filmmakers continue to roll the celluloid, all while keeping a sharp lookout for the KGB. Language, adult content alert.
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Ekaterina Samutsevich, one of the three members of the punk rock band Pussy Riot, has been freed following an appeal filed by her new attorneys. A Moscow judge today overturned her original two-year jail sentence and released Samutsevich on probation, citing circumstances surrounding her original arrest. Meanwhile, the judge upheld the two-year jail sentences for the two other band members. The Pussy Riot protesters were arrested in February after performing a blistering anti-Putin “punk prayer” from the altar of Moscow’s largest Russian Orthodox cathedral.
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Despite the jailing of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot and government crackdowns on dissidents, anti-Putin protesters haven’t abandoned their fight for greater civil liberties in Russia. SBS Dateline from Australia reports from Moscow on the opposition movement.
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A Russian judge today found three members of the punk band Pussy Riot guilty on charges of hooliganism for their February concert at a Moscow cathedral protesting the rule of President Vladimir Putin. In the concert, an act of guerrilla theater, the trio called upon the Virgin Mary to drive Putin away from Russia.
The band members each received sentences of two years imprisonment, commencing from the time of their arrest in March. The specific charges, “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” carried stiff sentences of up to seven years, but prosecutors were recommending that the band members be jailed for three years, and Putin himself had advocated leniency in their case. Judge Marina Syrova read from the lengthy verdict for about three hours before announcing the sentencing around 6 pm Friday, Moscow time.
“We accept this as our ethical misdemeanor, but an ethical misdemeanor should not be a cause of criminal punishment,” band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said. Meanwhile, outside the courtroom, arrests occurred as supporters and opponents of the band gathered. Those detained included chess master Garry Kasparov, a vehement Putin critic. Pussy Riot vigils also were staged in New York, London, Paris and elsewhere.
Here’s a World Edition report on the trial from Taiwan’s TomoNewsFunnies.
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And here’s an interview with the three other members of the band — Sparrow, Squirrel and Balaclava — who remain at large and have continued to elude Russian authorities.
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Meanwhile, a Femen protester in Kiev uses a chainsaw to cut down a cross in support of Pussy Riot. The cross was near Independence Square in this Ukraine city.
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It’s often said the Russians are serious people. Need proof? Here, Russian artist Petr Pavlensky has sewn his mouth shut in support of Pussy Riot, the female punk rock band, three of whose members remain under arrest for hooliganism after they staged an anti-Putin protest at a Moscow cathedral. H/T ITN News
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