Jailed punk band pushes free speech limits in Russia

Three members of the Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot await trial.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Oslo, Norway (CNN) -- Here's a quick way to get arrested in modern Russia: Walk into a cathedral wearing a neon mask and carrying a guitar, stand on the pulpit and scream punk songs with lyrics like "Virgin Mary drive Putin away!"

Throw in a few more obscenities, and that's how three members of the punk band Pussy Riot ended up in Russian prison in early March, after criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin, who the group says is in bed with the Russian Orthodox Church and is unfairly cracking down on free speech.

Three of its members are still in prison and have been charged with "hooliganism," a crime that carries a maximum sentence of seven years, according to news reports.

Before that, the all-female, anonymous band had performed on top of a prison and on Red Square in Moscow, the capital. Their performances on YouTube attract hundreds of thousands of views. After the arrest, punk rockers in cities as far away as San Francisco put on public performances in solidarity with the group. Pussy Riot, in its own controversial way, has become a symbol of the protest movement in Russia.

"Everyone loves the Sex Pistols, and no one likes punk bands being arrested for singing," said Pyotr Verzilov, a manager for the band who talked with CNN at a recent human rights conference in Norway, where he was speaking on Pussy Riot's behalf.

The band has drawn comparisons to other Western punk bands, including the Ramones. "Unlike their British and American forerunners, however," writes Bloomberg Businessweek, "the Russian rockers have something very real to be angry about, starting with their own imprisonment."

Some say Putin is cracking down unfairly on the band at a time when protesters continue to gather in the capital; others that Pussy Riot defiled the church and should be punished. Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, called their cathedral performance blasphemy, according to RIA Novosti, the state-owned news agency.

A priest, writing in Russia Today, said that "to try to label such a performance in a church as a political protest doesn't make it any more acceptable."

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Jailed punk band pushes free speech limits in Russia