"How did people react to your protest to the Pussy Riot trial, when you stood in front of a church, your lips sewn shut?"

"The passersby were interested in the performance, and wanted to understand what was going on. No one was aggressive; no one wanted to attack me. That shows how open people are to absorbing what they are shown, and what artists are trying to express."

Grabbing some Pussy Riot in Madison, Wisconsin.

Pussy Riot performed not a concert but a Q&A at the Wisconsin Union last night. The Progressive covered it:

Imagine if the colorful, costumed marchers protesting in the streets of Madison against Scott Walker in 2011 were rounded up and shipped off to a penal colony. Putin’s crackdown on dissent in Russia—after an outpouring of post-Soviet free expression—was just as much of a shock. When they started to make pointed critiques of the Putin regime, Pussy Riot caught the brunt of Putin’s backlash....

For my daughters and their friends, who took part in demonstrations against Walker, hearing from these radical young women who went to prison for their beliefs was eye-opening—especially in the wake of the election of Donald Trump....

Pussy Riot members Masha Alyokhina and Basha Bogina talked about standing up against Putin’s repression, why they felt a particular kinship with Wisconsinites during the uprising against Walker, and how they continued rebelling even in prison.

Their music, when they do play, is punk rock, but that didn't stop them from participating, the next day, at the Solidarity Sing Along at the State Capitol in some anti-Scott-Walker folksinging:



One of the Solidarity Singers quotes one of the Pussy Rioters: "She said last night that we have a good culture of rioting."

There are various old posts on this blog about the Solidarity Singers. From April 2013, there's "Solidarity Singers seek recognition as 'Longest continuously running singing political protest.'" There's this video I made of them singing in the Rotunda during the protests of 2011 (with me offering real-time commentary):



Then there was the time I got into what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called an "altercation": "'Capitol altercation involves Solidarity Singers, political blogger" — i.e. Althouse": " I was standing filming a man who was ranting about how Jesus would be on the anti-Scott Walker side. This man blows a vuvuzela right in my face more than once. He's yelling at a man who is a Christian minister, but was never given much of a chance to say anything. Then a very angry guy comes up and violently snatches my camera, but can't get it out of my hand. He tries a second time, and he also hits me. My son detached the man's hand from mine. Anyway, I have this on video... here."

IN THE COMMENTS: chickelit said: "Pussy Riot made a ridiculous anti-Trump propaganda video...."



I guess they're not the "trigger warning" type of feminist. That video is full of the graphic depiction of sexualized violence against women. I'm sure many people will find it sexually titillating in the old-fashioned way.

"Russia had its own Pussy Riot moment. What do you think of Donald Trump’s pussy riot moment?"

Said CNN's Christiane Amanpour to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Lavrov is sober: "Well, I don't know what this would… English is not my mother tongue, I don't know if I would sound decent. There are so many pussies around the presidential campaign on both sides that I prefer not to comment on this."

Do you have to be careful when speaking a foreign language... or does it work as license to say something that you don't really need to take responsibility for?

Is "pussy" a word we can say? A all-female punk rock group can use it, but that doesn't clean up the word for general usage.

I love the way Lavrov uses self-deprecation to claim greater freedom: English is not my mother tongue. I wouldn't say "tongue" so close to "pussy," but I'm a native English speaker. Lavrov can't be thought to have intended any double meaning there.

And I love how Lavrov totally made a comment and then pretended he didn't by saying he prefers not to comment. The comment was: "There are so many pussies around the presidential campaign."

Christiane Amanpour giggled and claimed not to have expected that.

But what "pussies" did Lavrov mean? Was it a reference to women in general? Was it the women who have been thrust into the spotlight by sexualizing moves by Trump and Bill Clinton? Was it a reference to Hillary Clinton and the many women around her? Is it not the sex meaning at all by the idea of pusillanimousness — the timidity or weakness associated with kittens and women? Why would Lavrov say that?

It's hard to know what he means... other than perhaps: You Americans are so weak compared to us Russians.

ADDED: He says on both sides. That's key. I'm picturing him singing "Both Sides Now." Write your own parody....

"I think this is an attempt to improve the image of the current government, a little, before the Sochi Olympics — particularly for the Western Europeans."

"But I don’t consider this humane or merciful... This is a lie," said Maria Alyokhina, one of 2 members of Pussy Riot, who was imprisoned in Russia for staging a protest in Moscow's main cathedral and who has now been set free. She says she was forced out and would prefer serving the full 2-year sentence to serving as a propaganda tool for Putin.

Having chosen a church for their protest, they were accused of religious hatred, but they say they chose the church because of its political political support for Putin.

"On Sunday the protest artist Petr Pavlensky sat naked on Red Square and drove a nail through his scrotum and into the pavement."

"Pavlensky had staged disturbing protests before."

In July of last year, he sewed his mouth shut and stood outside a cathedral in St. Petersburg in a show of solidarity with the jailed art collective Pussy Riot. In May he had himself wrapped, naked, in a cocoon of barbed wire and placed on the steps of the St. Petersburg legislature. He lay immobile while the police hunted for a pair of garden shears, severed the wire and then struggled to avoid being cut themselves. That time Pavlensky was protesting a series of restrictions on freedom of speech and of assembly....

Each of these actions required the police to deal with Pavlensky’s body — something Russian law enforcement officials almost never have to do, even though they routinely mangle, maim and kill protesters, convicts and perceived violators of rules and laws.

"The Suffragette Summer School, a two-day feminist training camp... promises to help 'budding Pussy Rioters' hone headline-grabbing techniques."

"Feminism can be quite isolating because it is so stigmatized... It can be quite hard to tell people you don’t know that you’re a feminist, because of these persistent stereotypes — people think feminists are anti-men, are humorless, have to dress in a certain way — so the very act of coming together can be quite powerful."

The very act of coming together... Oh, my. That does suggests a headline-grabbing technique.

Now, don't get mad at me. You wanted to show you're not humorless.

I know: That's not funny.

"If Jennifer Lopez or Madonna just showed up in a place of worship, stripped down to their skivvies and started dancing around the altar..."

"... would that fly in any Western democracy?"

"Who is to blame for the performance at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and for our being put on trial after the concert? The authoritarian political system is to blame. What Pussy Riot does is oppositional art or politics."

"Who is to blame for the performance at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and for our being put on trial after the concert?"

Political argument in defense at the criminal trial of Pussy Riot in Russia. Also: "To my deepest regret, this mock trial is close to the standards of the Stalinist troikas."

The protesters got a 2-year sentence for "hooliganism." They've gotten a lot of international support, because the government seems to be coming after them for their free speech and their music, but — as the NYT puts it — they "have never released a song or an album, and they do not seem to have any serious aspirations to do so." And the prosecution accused them of acting out of "religious hatred" (as well as "committing 'moral harm' and even of practicing Satanism"). They did "prance around in front of the golden Holy Doors leading into the altar, dancing, chanting and lip-syncing for what would later become a music video of a profane song in which they beseeched the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Mr. Putin."

"Russian Muslim 'catacomb sect' faces cruelty charges."

BBC reports:

Police found 27 children and 38 adults living in catacomb-like cells, dug on eight levels under his home.... Some children had literally never seen the light of day, Russian media report....

According to the Russian website Islam News, [Faizrakhman] Sattarov, 83, declared himself an Islamic prophet in the mid-1960s after interpreting sparks from a trolleybus cable as a divine light from God....

Traditional Muslims regard Muhammad as the last prophet, so these "Faizrakhmanists" are on their own.

We were just talking about the Russian Penal code in connection with the Pussy Riot case (in which the charge is "hooliganism"). In this case, the charge, under Article 330 of the code is "arbitrariness." That is the "unauthorised commission of actions contrary to the order presented by a law or any other normative legal act."

Madonna and Yoko Ono appeal to Vladimir Putin to free Pussy Riot.

Pussy Riot is on trial for a performance in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in which they "danced and sang a song which parodies a Christian prayer, imploring the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Mr Putin." They are charged with "hooliganism" (or whatever word or words in Article 213 of the Russian penal code have been translated into "hooliganism") and "are accused of inciting religious hatred." The chose the site for their performance, "in front of the altar of Moscow's main cathedral" because "the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, publicly back[ed] Mr Putin in elections."

IN THE COMMENTS: Irene points out that the English word "hooligan" began around 1898 and quickly made its way into Russian, where it is "khuligan."

By 1900-01 khuligan was widely used to describe the gangs of young toughs who were frightening respectable citizens all over Russia, and it has never fallen out of favor since.

"Russia jails female punk band members."

"The band [Pussy Riot] first gained notoriety performing in Red Square on a cold January afternoon with the song 'Putin wet his pants" performed in dayglo balaclavas and mini dresses."

Pussy Riot...

... in Red Square.