Putin: Punishment for feminist punk rockers shouldn’t be too severe

By Associated Press, Published: August 2

LONDON — Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Thursday criticized the feminist punk rockers facing trial for performing a “punk prayer” against him at Moscow’s main cathedral, but said that a punishment for them shouldn’t be too severe.

Putin’s comments to Russian reporters on a visit to the London Olympics were the leader’s first reaction to the trial of three members of the Pussy Riot band, whose imprisonment has drawn international outrage. It may signal that the Kremlin has opted for a milder punishment for the women than the seven years they could face.

Asked about the case, Putin said that the stunt “was no good” and would have entailed a much tougher punishment for its participants if they had performed it at a holy site in Israel or even death if they had done it at some Muslim site in Russia’s North Caucasus region.

Mixed Russian Feelings on Jailed Punk Rock Band

MOSCOW — The Rev. Aleksandr L. Ptitsyn did not pause even a fraction of a second when asked if Jesus would have forgiven the three young members of a feminist punk rock band — two of them the mothers of small children — who have been jailed since March and face up to seven years in prison for staging a guerrilla performance on the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

“Of course he would,” the priest said. “No doubt.”

But Father Ptitsyn, who is the rector of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, the Russian Orthodoxparish closest to the courthouse where the members of the band, called Pussy Riot, are now on trial, was not so quick to offer forgiveness of his own. Instead, retelling the story of St. George, who reputedly killed an evil dragon even after taming it, Father Ptitsyn made a forceful case for punishing the three women whom he described as paid agents of the West. “The gist of this parable is that evil unpunished is the same as evil encouraged,” Father Ptitsyn said, sitting in the gated courtyard of his church, which was built in the mid-1600s.

Mitt and Lech

Romney's world tour hasn't been the most auspicious, rankling Brits with the comments he made about the Olympics, angering Palestinians over the comments he made in Israel, and turning off Pols with his attacks on trade unions.  But, he seems to have won Lech Walesa's heart,

Mr Romney was met in Gdansk by Mr Walesa - Solidarity's first leader and Poland's first democratically-elected president - and by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

"He's very open, and brimming with values, his wife is always by his side, he's got five kids -- we're very much alike, I really like him and am pleased we met," Mr Walesa told reporters.

But the trade union movement, which originated in Gdansk and toppled Poland's communist regime in the late 1980s, said it had nothing to do with Mr Romney's trip to the city.

"Regretfully, we were informed by our friends from the American headquarters of AFL-CIO (trade union in the US), which represents more than 12 million employees... that Mitt Romney supported attacks on trade unions and employees' rights," Solidarity said in a statement.

Mr Walesa and Solidarity have not seen eye to eye for some years.

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Pussy Riot Apologize, Plead Not Guilty

MOSCOW, July 30 (RIA Novosti)

Members of the female band Pussy Riot have called their “punk prayer” performed at a Christian church an “ethical mistake,” but pleaded not guilty to charges of hooliganism that can land them in prison for seven years.

“We never said anything insulting to the believers, the church or God,” group member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said in a statement read out loud by the defense at the Pussy Riot trial in Moscow on Monday.

The group expected its political performance to be viewed as ironic, Tolokonnikova said, adding that “perhaps we had no right to invade the ritual space.”

The group staged its performance in the altar zone of Christ the Savior Cathedral only because its members were unaware of church rules, fellow band member Maria Alyokhina said.

The Not So Secret Life of Anna Chapman

I thought that was Anna Chapman on Secrets of the World, a Russian version of the old American series, In Search Of, with Leonard Nimoy.  Anna plays a pretty small role in the series.  It is mostly a menacing voice trying to connect loose strands provided by dubious experts on everything from the Illuminati to vast underground cities into elaborate conspiracy theories.  Suffice it to say that dear Anna seems to be enjoying life after her brief stint as a spy.

I Don't Want To Be Sedated

Five members of the band called Pussy Riot were detained in February after they performed an anti-Putin song, jumping up and down at the altar of Moscow's Christ the Savior Church. The group, clad in their trademark colored balaclavas and spandex outfits, sang about a divine intervention that would remove President Vladimir Putin from power.

Three members of the group have been held in jail without a trial ever since. Officials recently announced their pre-trial detention has been extended until 2013. They face charges of "hooliganism on the grounds of religious hatred," which could result in up to seven years in prison.

Figure With Ties to Milosevic Is Set to Become Serbia’s Premier

The wartime spokesman for Slobodan Milosevic’s party will be sworn in as prime minister of Serbia on Thursday, officials said, stoking international concerns that Serbia will abandon its European path and return to the nationalism of the past.
.....
Although Mr. Dacic and Mr. Nikolic say they have left nationalism behind and have embraced the European Union, the new coalition government will need to convince skeptics that it does not intend to forsake the West for closer ties with Moscow. Mr. Nikolic once said that Serbia would be better off as a province of Russia than as a member of the European Union.

Like much of Europe, Serbia faces economic challenges, including 25 percent unemployment, rising inflation, a weak currency and woefully low incomes for workers. A headline published online last week by B92, a Serbian broadcaster, lamented that “10,000 Serbian Children Eat Only One Meal Per Day.”

While top economic posts in the new government are to be held by supporters of free-market economics, some voices in the coalition have been calling for radical steps like breaking with the International Monetary Fund, which froze a $1.2 billion precautionary loan to Serbia in February over concerns about overspending and spiraling public debt. Rather than adopt harsh austerity, some analysts say, the new government may seek a loan from Russia.
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Serbia has refused to recognize the independence of Kosovo, a former Serbian province that broke away in 2008, taking with it territory that Serbia cherishes as its medieval heartland, though it is now populated largely by ethnic Albanians. Mr. Dacic gave signs in Berlin recently that he was open to improving ties with Kosovo, but he has also discussed a partitioning of the new country as a possible solution to tensions there.