Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer

Pussy Riot seemed to be well-received at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. While many people had seen news reports about the arrest and trial of these three young women who are part of Pussy Riot – described as a feminist punk-rock collective – this documentary provides much more detail on these events. The film is informative as it examines how they were tried essentially a hate crime for performing a highly offensive song at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior on February 21, 2012. The trial was somewhat similar to a trial for blasphemy. The film was interesting and informative, but not terribly creative as a documentary film. Much of the film was simply edited tapes of the trial coverage and other secondary news coverage. There was some background material on the young women and interviews with their parents to provide some context for the events. I would say that the events themselves were more inherently interesting than the filmmakers' treatment of them. Still, since the film has been picked up by HBO it appears that many more Americans will get a chance to learn about this Moscow Show Trial and the tragic deterioration of Russian democracy under Vladimir Putin that this trial serves to demonstrate. Certainly, these brave young women deserve our sincere praise and respect for their efforts to promote freedom in Russia.

Anyone with a brain and their eyes open isn't stupid enough to believe in ANY god ... The more stupid in society just believe anything the ruling classes encourage them to do so they can manipulate and control ... They are like sheep ... These girls are great and to be applauded ... And thats from a 57 year old man who isn't Russian or a feminist ... How do you think in 20 years Russia went from a communist state to somewhere where there is an outbreak of billionaires and everyone else has nothing just like before ? ... Open your eyes and see ... Question what you are told ... Otherwise the world will be dead in 2 generations ... It really is that simple

When the US government sanctioned the beating and arrest of US citizens for swaying from side to side in the Jefferson Memorial a couple of years ago, it provoked no response from the Western media (and therefore the Western zombie-citizens who rely entirely on the media for their 'opinions'). Yet the Russian government, sorry, 'Putin' (because everyone knows Putin is a dictator, right?) is broadly denounced as a 'tyrant' by these same Western zombies (again because their 'outraged opinion' was deftly inserted into their brains by the Western media) for putting a stop to the ugly spectacle of deranged Russian women sticking chickens up their nether regions in supermarkets, daubing outlines of phalli on bridges, staging lewd events in a museum and cavorting around like retards in Russian Orthodox churches as part of their 3 year long international attack on the Russian government.

Even the name 'Pussy Riot' strongly suggests that this band of nihilists has always viewed the English-speaking world as their main audience. If informing the Russian people about problems in Russian society was their main goal, surely a Russian name would have been top of their list of requirements. But that's not the job with which these self-described 'Trotskyists' were tasked. Their job is to provoke a reaction from the Russian government which can then be used by Western governments and media to launch an 'anti-Putin' propaganda offensive to prepare the ground for a plausibly 'popular uprising' against the Russian government. As we have seen recently in Ukraine, foreign governments can be 'legitimately' overthrown by a relatively small group of Western government-backed protesters without either the input or support of the vast majority of the population of the host nation.

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/who-or-what-is-russias- pussy-riot.html

The Guardian's article titled, "Pussy Riot trial 'worse than Soviet era'," opens immediately with overt propaganda, describing the courtroom and Russian flag as "shabby" and a police dog as "in search of blood." The British paper attempts to portray Russia itself as having a "stark divide" between conservatives and liberals, the latter fighting against the state "with any means it can."

Already the Guardian runs into trouble - by portraying Russia as "divided" it is dismissing recent elections that granted Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party a sound mandate to lead the country. And while it is true that in reality, between voter turnout and Putin's garnering the support of 63% of those that did turn out (in a 5-way race), only about 40% of Russia's total registered voters actually voted for Putin, his mandate is still sounder than that of US President Barack Obama's 32% in a mere 2-way race, or last year's victory here in Thailand by Yingluck Shinawatra with a tenuous 35%, a victory hailed by the Western media as a "sweeping" mandate

Helping to push down on this political lever are propaganda outfits like the Guardian, portraying the trial as a case of liberal Russian opposition groups fighting against a judicial throwback to the Soviet Union. In reality, it is another Wall Street-London production in the same vein as Serbia's US-funded Otpor movement, the Kony 2012 fraud and the US-engineered "Arab Spring."

Contrary to what is promoted in this film, it was not Pussy Riot's critique of religion, or the }patriarchy" that got them into legal trouble in Russia. It was going inside a church, and desecrating it through physical acts. What they got prosecuted for was not a "thought crime" or a free speech crime, but for what would be a prosecutable hate crime in the UK, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the US, Canada, Australia etc.

What a shame. Free speech is important.Free speech that one side or the other consider despicable, discordant or prejudiced, is important to protect. There is nothing wrong with radically attacking through speech or art the ideas or beliefs that people hold. But the "performance art" INSIDE the church by Pussy Riot is not, and never was, the same as Hebdo cartons, or Mapplethorpe's P sschrist. This film is utterly full of false narrative of what happened. Pussy riot could have done the same thing on the public sidewalk outside that church and not been prosecuted. They decided to go in , not leave, even get up on the alter. if you did that in Paris, London, Washington DC you'd go to jail too.

This documentary is a must-see for anyone who doubts that terrifying sexism (much in the name of religion) and political repression exist, that young people are extremely courageous, and that art has the power to liberate the mind, heart, and spirit.

This documentary will give you respect for Pussy Riot members, their families, and their sympathizers, yet help you understand why Pussy Riot's detractors feel so threatened by the group.

Although much of the film covers legal proceedings against the group, and anyone who followed the trials and news related to the group knows the outcome, the film never drags. The filmmakers also give a brief but insightful look at some of the forces behind the the charged social and political environment in Russia, particularly around religion and social protest.

Well-done film!