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Pres. Putin’s Pussy Riot Crackdown Gives Hint on Syria Thinking

By on July 25, 2012


THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT is using the Orthodox Church to wage a cruel campaign using the religious hierarchy against three young, female musicians in a band called Pussy Riot.

From The New Yorker:

…Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, twenty-three; Maria Alekhina, twenty-four; and Ekaterina Samutsevich, twenty-nine—Nadia, Masha, and Katya—are being prosecuted for an unsanctioned “punk-prayer” called “Our Lady, chase Putin out.”

The prosecution of the Pussy Riot women is more than an act of absurd injustice and cruelty; it is a sign that the Russian state is increasingly lashing out against those citizens it sees as overly modernized. Vladimir Putin has often said that modernization is the goal of his regime, but its policy is increasingly slipping toward something egregiously anti-modern, obscurantist, even medieval. The Pussy Riot case is a telling illustration of Putin’s political crackdown—and of his increasing reliance on the Russian Orthodox Church as a resort of the most conservative societal forces.

[...] Technically, the three women are prosecuted for hooliganism; a more appropriate definition of their offense would be contempt of high authority. The Pussy Riot’s “punk prayer” was blatantly disrespectful of both Putin and the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. The secular and the clerical leaders share a sense of mutual loyalty. Each of them presides over a heavily centralized, hierarchical power realm; both are intolerant to those challenging their authority.

It’s a cultural anecdote that helps explain why Pres. Putin has dug his heels in on Syria. As he cements an iron control back in his own country, it sends a message he won’t tolerate any challenges to his own rule, which is being reconstituted in the old Soviet Union way. Authoritarianism is back in Russia, baby, and it’s badder than ever.

This adds more weight that the world lecturing Putin on Syrian atrocities and the need for a transition out of the current government won’t make a dent with him until Pres. Bashar al-Assad decides it’s time to go, which could be longer than anyone currently imagines. All eyes are on the battle of Aleppo today.

Putin’s war on these young women in the Pussy Riot is symbolic. It sends a strong message if anyone wants to pay attention.

About Taylor Marsh

Veteran political analyst and author. Former Miss Missouri, Broadway performer, & relationship consultant at the LA Weekly, produced a one-woman show titled "Weeping for JFK."
View all posts by Taylor Marsh →

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2 Responses to Pres. Putin’s Pussy Riot Crackdown Gives Hint on Syria Thinking

  1. mjsmith July 25, 2012 at 1:10 pm #

    I am sure the actions of Putin and the Church will bring an abundance of internation attention to Pussy Riot.
    AP Story on Syria

    Yet while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed confidence Tuesday in the rebel advances and predicted the eventual establishment of safe havens, the opposition fighters have yet to hold any territory against a concerted regime assault.

    This is in stark contrast to Libya’s rebels, who last year were able to create a liberated area in the east of their country that proved key to their successful battle to oust longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. However, the Syrian rebels’ hold over territory is tenuous. They do not control any major urban areas, and are not backed by NATO’s war planes the way the Libyans were.

    While Syrian government forces are stretched thin by fighting taking place across the country in cities like Homs and Hama in central Syria, Deir el-Zour in the west, Daraa in the south and Idlib province in the north, they can defeat any single rebel assault by concentrating their forces, as they now appear to be doing with Aleppo since pacifying Damascus

    • Taylor Marsh July 25, 2012 at 1:46 pm #

      The section in italics is why quite a few experts think we remain in a long haul mode in Syria.