Russian punks Pussy Riot have been arrested over their February protest at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour cathedral. Beginning on 3 March, the day before the presidential election that saw Vladimir Putin return to power, six band members were charged in connection with hate crimes and violations of public order.
Two of the musicians remain in custody, where they have begun a hunger strike. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhin are protesting against the conditions of their arrest, which will see them kept behind bars until a late April hearing. They both have young children: Tolokonnikova has a four-year-old son and Alyokhin’s daughter is five. The women “will starve in jail until they are returned to their children”, Pussy Riot explained on their website.
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If the accused are found guilty, they face up to seven years in prison. “These citizens were taken in on suspicion of committing a crime, one involving a gross violation of public order, including inciting religious hatred as part of a planned conspiracy,” announced the government’s press service. The band members claim they were interrogated for seven hours, beginning at 4am; the investigators allegedly revealed the case was being directed “from the highest levels”, with a focus not just on Pussy Riot’s protest but on “all anti-state activities”.
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