RUSSIA KEEPS PUNK BAND PROTESTERS JAILED

RUSSIA EXTENDS JAILING
PUNK ROCK PROTESTERS

www.washingtonpost.com - In a sign of Russian authorities’ determination to clamp down on dissent, a court extended for six months on Friday the detention of three punk rockers who had staged a protest performance in a cathedral. 
The three young women were among a group of five mask-wearing singers known as Pussy Riot who took to the altar of Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in February and chanted what they described as a punk prayer. 
In it, they called on divine intervention to drive then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin from office two weeks before his election as president.  The women - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29 - were arrested shortly afterward.  
Prosecutors said they needed more time to investigate and asked for an extension until January. By then the women will have been behind bars for a total of 10 months, accused of blasphemy and offending Orthodox believers. They are being held on hooliganism charges, which can bring up to seven years in jail.

The court action came just after the Russian parliament passed a series of quickly written laws this month aimed at curbing protest by imposing hefty fines for slander, allowing government limits on the Internet and forcing human rights and election-monitoring organizations, among other groups that receive foreign funds, to register as foreign agents.News of the prolonged detention quickly dominated Twitter and other social media and was met by disbelief and outrage. 
Although the Russian Orthodox Church has supported the rockers’ prosecution, the charges have angered many here, believers and non-believers alike, who say the women may be guilty of disorderly conduct but should not be in jail.
Influential cultural figures have signed petitions in their defence, and fund-raising concerts for them have been held around the world. Amnesty International has described them as prisoners of conscience and, after the latest court ruling, called for their immediate release.

A Moscow court’s decision to detain the members of the all-girl Russian punk band “Pussy Riot” for another 6 months has sparked a new wave of public outrage.  The trio of female punk group, who face up to seven years in jail, derided President Vladimir Putin in a protest in Moscow's main cathedral, have been held in pre-trial detention since March in what their lawyers called a show trial dictated by the Kremlin. There are two ways of bringing the opposition under control. One is by logic and philosophy, the other is by force.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

... Thus the saintly persons became very anxious for the safety of the people in general. The conclusion is that even though saintly persons have no business in political affairs, they are always compassionate upon the people in general. Thus even though they are always aloof from society, out of mercy and compassion they consider how the citizens can peacefully execute their rituals and follow the rules and regulations of varnāśrama-dharma. That was the concern of these sages. 
In this age of Kali, everything is disturbed. Therefore saintly persons should take to the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra, as recommended in the śāstras: harer nāma harer nāma / harer nāmaiva kevalam /kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva / nāsty eva gatir anyathā [Adi 17.21] Both for spiritual and material prosperity, everyone should devotedly chant the Hare Krishna mantra.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāna)
Canto 4: "Creation of the Fourth Order"
Chapter 14: "The Story of King Vena"
Verse 37 - Bhaktivedanta VedaBase

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