Russian punk rockers sentenced to two years for anti-Putin concert

MOSCOW — Russian authorities sentenced three feminist punk rockers to two years in prison Friday, showing that protest will be punished even as they avoided the harshest penalty possible. The case against the women — who dashed into Moscow’s main cathedral to sing a song directed against Vladimir Putin — has inflamed the pro-democracy movement here and around the world and put the Kremlin in a dangerous position.

Putin, prime minister when the song was sung in February and now president, has made it clear that dissent here will have its limits. The two-year sentence appeared to be an attempt to reinforce that message without fueling more widespread protest.

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A Russian female punk band was found guilty of hooliganism after they protested President Valdimir Putin in a cathedral.

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Small but raucous protests were held in a few dozen cities in support of three members of a Russian punk band who were convicted of hooliganism in Moscow. A group gathered in Washington outside the Russian embassy.

Prosecutors had asked for three years — the charge of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred carries a maximum of seven years — but after nearly three hours spent reading a summary of the trial from a red, leather-bound book, the judge said each woman would get two years. The case was so controversial that the judge’s face was not shown on the video feed for those who could not pack into the crowded courtroom. The defense said it would appeal the sentence.

The women, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, have been in jail since March. They are members of a feminist collective called Pussy Riot and were relatively unknown singers and activists until their protests coincided with a rise in anti-government sentiment over the winter.

Now they have become an international cause, described as prisoners of conscience and caught up in a show trial reminiscent of the days of Stalinist repression. A sentence of time already served would have been seen as a sign of Kremlin tolerance for dissent; a sentence of three years or more would have been interpreted as an indication that Putin wants to put down all challenges to his presidency, no matter the cost.

But on Friday, the shorter sentence was slammed by rights groups as evidence that Russia was repressing dissent. And the United States expressed disappointment over the decision.

During his daily briefing, White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said, “While we understand the group’s behavior was offensive for some, we have concerns about the way these young women were treated by the Russian judicial system.”

Alexei Navalny, the crusading anti-corruption activist, wrote on his blog that though he believed the band’s stunt was foolish, “obviously, this unjust and cruel decision will increase anticlerical sentiment and aggressive criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church.”

Human Rights Watch released a statement from Hugh Williamson, the group’s Europe and Central Asia director. “It’s clear in this case that the women’s aim was to make a political statement, and it’s also clear that some found their actions offensive. But there is still a long way to go between an offensive political statement and a hate crime,” Williamson said. “The case against the Pussy Riot band members seems aimed not at protecting public order and security but at setting boundaries for political criticism.”