Pussy Riot’s Masha Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova interviewed by Stephen Colbert last night.
Part One:
Part Two:
Sign off:
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Tag Archives: Pussy Riot
Pussy Riot, Flaming Lips, Lauryn Hill to Participate in Amnesty International Human RIghts Concert
Sixteen years after it’s last human rights concert, Amnesty International has organized a new concert and Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina will be there.
On February 5, 2014 The Flaming Lips, Imagine Dragons, Ms. Lauryn Hill, The Fray, Tegan and Sara, Cold War Kids, Collbie Caillat, Cake and others will perform for the human rights organization at Barclays Center in Brooklyn .
According to a press release about the concert, Tolokonnikova and Alekhina “will address attendees at the concert to raise awareness about prisoners of conscience.”
In a statement the two Pussy Riot members said:
We are happy to support Amnesty International’s work on behalf of human rights and political prisoners. We, more than anyone, understand how important Amnesty’s work is in connecting activists to prisoners… A month ago we were freed from Russian prison camps. We will never forget what it’s like to be in prison after a political conviction. We have vowed to continue helping those who remain behind bars and we hope to see you all at the Amnesty International concert on February 5th in Brooklyn!
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Pussy Riot Members Meet the Press: ‘I don’t want to live in [Putin’s] terrifying fairytale’
On Friday December 27, 2913, two days after Christmas, the two just-freed members of Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina held their first press conference since their release at the studios of the Russian opposition TV station, TV Rain. The spoke before 100s of journalists.
Here are some of their comments:
Tolokonnikova:
“The message of our action in the cathedral is still valid. Our attitude to Putin hasn’t changed at all. By Putin we mean the bureaucratic machine he has built. We’d like to do what we said in our last action – we’d like him to go away.”
“Vladimir Putin is a very closed, opaque chekist [Russian slang for a secret policeman]. He is very much afraid. He builds walls around him that block out reality. Many of the things he said about Pussy Riot were so far from the truth, but it was clear he really believed them. I think he believes that Western countries are a threat, that it’s a big bad world out there where houses walk on chicken legs and there is a global masonic conspiracy. I don’t want to live in this terrifying fairytale.”
They spoke about their new human rights organization, Zone of Law [ a play on “the zone,” shorthand for “prison camp” in Russian]. The new organization will offer legal aid to prisoners who complain of violence, threats, abuse and overwork, according to Rolling Stone.
Tolokonnikova:
“We already started to do this [human rights work] in the camp. There we had nothing; the only thing we had was our will. After my hunger strike and letter, the 16-hour slave-working day has become a thing of the past, and they’ve begun to release people on parole. Fear has appeared among the guards at the colony. It’s unbelievably important now to continue this work.”
Alyokhina:
“We really are provocateurs. But there’s no need to say that word like it’s a swear word. Art is always provocation.”
Tolokonnikova said her thinking has evolved while in prison, and it was now “absolutely obvious” that if she could redo the past, she would not participate in the band’s 2011 “punk prayer” against Putin.
Tolokonnikova:
“I was smaller, I was younger and I had other understandings about my goals. I don’t think that you have to chain yourself to some moments in the past. I would like to be judged by those things that I’m going to do now.”
And there will be no Pussy Riot concerts to capitalize on their notoriety.
Alyokhina: “I think we can popularize our ideas without concerts.”
For more of this story:
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Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova & Maria Alyokhina Are Free
The two imprisoned members of Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, were freed today (Monday, December 23, 2013) under a new amnesty law. Both women had served nearly all of their two-year sentence.
Maria Alyokhina was set free in the western city of Nizhny Novgorod this morning, while Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was freed later in the day in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.
Upon her release, Tolokonnikova yelled, “Russia without Putin!,” Rolling Stone reports. She then told reporters:
I’m in the mood to work after getting out from prison. My exit from prison is only just the beginning, as far as the line between freedom and bondage remains very narrow in Russia, in an authoritarian state.
In a telephone interview Alyokhina told the New York Times “she did not want amnesty, and that officials had forced her to leave the prison. She said that the amnesty program was designed to make Mr. Putin look benevolent, and that she would have preferred to serve the remainder of her sentence.”
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. We didn’t ask for any pardon. I would have sat here until the end of my sentence because I don’t need mercy from Putin.
More from the New York Times here.
More from Rolling Stone here.
More photos from the Voice Project here.
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Pussy Riot Member Maria Alyokhina Reportedly Free
Reuters reported this evening that Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina is now free.
Maria Alyokhina, a member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, walked free from jail on Monday under an amnesty allowing her early release from a two-year sentence for a protest in a church against President Vladimir Putin.
“They’ve just released her,” Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of fellow band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who is also due to be released under the amnesty, told Reuters.
For more of the story, head here.
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Russian President Putin Confirms Amnesty for Pussy Riot Members
Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that the imprisoned Pussy Riot members will be freed under an amnesty but described their protest against him in a church as “disgraceful behaviour,” NDTV reported.
The amnesty will also free 30 people arrested in a Greenpeace protest against Arctic oil — before Russia hosts the Winter Olympics in February 2014.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina are serving two-year sentences for a protest at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which included the filming the music video “Punk Prayer – Mother of God, Chase Putin Away!”
Putin said the amnesty was passed to mark the 20th anniversary of Russia’s post-Soviet constitution, and not with the Greenpeace protesters or Pussy Riot in mind.
At an annual news conference today Putin said:
“It (the amnesty) is neither linked to Greenpeace, nor this group (Pussy Riot).”
But Putin also said, “I was not sorry that they (the Pussy Riot members) ended up behind bars,” Putin said. “I was sorry that they were engaged in such disgraceful behaviour, which in my view was degrading to the dignity of women. They went beyond all boundaries.”
For more of the story go here.
Pussy Riot-Punk Prayer:
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Pussy Riot Members To Be Freed Under New Amnesty
Russian lawmakers approved the final version of an amnesty today that will free Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who are both currently serving two-year sentences.
The State Duma, or lower house of parliament, made modifications to the amnesty, and then approved it. The law passed unanimously, according to the state news organization RIA Novosti.
For more, head here.
Pussy Riot-Punk Prayer:
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Pussy Riot Members Could Be Freed This Week
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina, currently serving a two-year prison sentence, could be freed by the end of the week under a new amnesty, their lawyer said today.
Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, unanimously approved the amnesty proposed by Russian President Putin on the first of three required readings today
“According to the draft law passed today, my clients will be freed,” lawyer Irina Khrunova said in a phone interview with Bloomberg News.
For more of this story, head here.
And for a strange story in which Russian officials discussed Tolokonnikova’s beauty via Twitter, head here.
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Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova To Perform at Prison Concerts
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova will be performing at several prison concerts this coming Friday and Saturday, according to her lawyer, Irina Khrunova, who shared the information with the online television Dozhd TV.
“She told me over the phone that they would visit a few penitentiaries in the Krasnoyarsk Region with concerts on December 20-21,” Khrunova said. “This is because there is some kind of music band at the hospital she is in that Tolokonnikova [has] very successfully integrated [with]. They will give New Year’s concerts.”
A spokeswoman for the local penitentiary authority, Yekaterina Brotsman, confirmed that Tolokonnikova was scheduled to take part in prison concerts later this week, Radio Free Europe reported.
Tolokonnikova won’t be offering a rendition of Pussy Riot’s “Putin Zassal,” the song that landed her in prison. The title has been translated as “Putin has Pissed Himself,” “Putin Chickened Out,” “Putin Got Scared” and “Putin is Wetting Himself,” according to Wikipedia.
Brotsman said that the repertoire for the concerts had been vetted by prison authorities and will include mostly rock ballads and pop songs.
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Pussy Riot Member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to Spend Rest of Prison Term at Hospital
The Moscow Times Reports:
Jailed Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova will spend the rest of her two-year prison term at a hospital in the Krasnoyarsk region, a news report said Monday.
Tolokonnikova made the request herself after she had been examined at the hospital, which is run by the prison, and the authorities will now decide what job to give her while she is there, Itar-Tass reported.
Tolokonnikova’s lawyer said her client was feeling well and has joined the hospital’s band.
Her sentence is set to run until March 2014, but her lawyer thinks that she could be released earlier under an amnesty planned for this month in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Constitution.
A draft of the amnesty is currently under consideration by the State Duma and is expected to be passed on Wednesday. It could come into effect by the weekend.
More here.
Meanwhile, as I previously reported, the Russian Federation Supreme Court has ordered a review of the Pussy Riot verdicts.
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