guardian.co.uk,
Miriam Elder in Moscow, Monday 8 October 2012
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| Pussy Riot members, from left, Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova in a Moscow court. Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPA |
Vladimir Putin has said the three jailed members of the anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot "got what they asked for", days before a Moscow court is due to
consider their appeal.
"It
was right that they were arrested, and the court's decision was right,"
Putin told a journalist at NTV, a state-run television channel, during an
hour-long documentary aired in honour of his 60th birthday on Sunday.
Maria
Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, have
been held in a Moscow detention centre since their arrest in March. They were
sentenced to two years in prison in mid-August on charges of "hooliganism motivated
by religious hatred" after performing an anti-Putin "punk
prayer" in a Moscow cathedral. They are to appeal against the sentence on
Wednesday.
A lawyer
for the women, Nikolai Polozov, said Putin's comments were part of "a planned
propaganda campaign aimed at getting the court to form a negative opinion"
in the appeal case. "This is pressure on the court." He compared it
to comments Putin made before the sentencing on 17 August, when the powerful
president said he thought the women should not be judged "too
harshly". They were subsequently handed a two-year sentence instead of a
possible seven.
Putin
claimed on NTV that he had played no role in the case. "I have nothing to
do with it," he said. "They got what they asked for."
The three
women have been held in a Moscow detention centre since their arrest in early
March. They have apologised for offending Russian Orthodox believers, but have
insisted that their performance was a political act.
Putin
initially reacted to a question about the band with visible disgust and a
laugh, asking the journalist, Vadim Takmenyov, whether he knew how to translate
their name – Takmenyov said he could not say the word in front of Putin.
"You
see, if you can't say it in front of me, it means it's an indecent word. These
girls must be talented – they forced you all to say that word," Putin
replied. "Is that normal?"
"One
must not erode our moral foundation and undermine the country. What would be
left then?" the president wondered.
The New
Times, an independent magazine, aired a video on its website on Monday of
Tolokonnikova inside her cell, a dingy green room stacked with bunk beds,
blankets and a pile of boxes of milk. She is asked if she has enough books to
relax and replies: "I don't want to relax, my whole life is devoted to
work." The women have remained defiant throughout their case.
Putin used
his birthday documentary as a chance to rubbish Russia's opposition movement,
saying: "There are many here who don't want Russia to get stronger.".
When asked
if he followed polls – which show that Putin's popularity has slipped from
heights that regularly had him polling at 70% approval ratings – the president
said: "I have a chemical, an internal feeling, in the correctness of what
I'm doing." Putin's latest approval ratings have fallen to a post-election
low of 37% in one survey and even pro-government pollsters only have him at
48%.
 |
| Freed
feminist punk group Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich, left, leaves a court in Moscow, on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. A Moscow appeals court on Wednesday unexpectedly freed Yekaterina Samutsevich of the jailed Pussy Riot group, but upheld the two-year prison sentence for the two others jailed for an irreverent protest against President Vladimir Putin. (AP Photo) |
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