Update: Pussy Riot Members Found Guilty, Get Two-Year Prison Terms

Women convicted of 'hooliganism' for anti-Putin 'punk prayer' in Moscow cathedral

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

August 17, 2012 10:20 AM ET

Three members of Pussy Riot have been sentenced to two years in prison today after a Russian court found them guilty of "hooliganism" in connection with a February "punk prayer" protest they staged against Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral, Reuters reports.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, and Maria Alyokhina, 24, jailed since March, have received expressions of support from musicians including Paul McCartney, Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers during legal proceedings that have been criticized as a politically motivated show trial intended to chill dissent against Putin. The women said that theirs was a political protest that was never intended to offend the Russian Orthodox Church.

Comment

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Relaxed DMX Discusses New Album, Rock the Bells Tour

Music Main

Rihanna Opens Up About Chris Brown: 'I Lost My Best Friend'

Picks From Around the Web

blog comments powered by Disqus

Featured News From vulture

Daily Newsletter

We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

Most Popular

Photos & Videos

Go To Content

Random Notes: Hottest Rock Pictures

Go To Content Play Video

Video: Metallica, 'Hit the Lights' Live at Orion

Go To Content

Gallery: Readers' Poll: The 10 Greatest Rock & Roll Rebels

Best Ever Lists

Other Lists

Song Stories

“The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie”

The Joy Formidable | 2011

The opener off the Welsh group’s The Big Roar album was an epic one, but the band was worried that track had polarized fans. “The first song is eight minutes long,” Rhydian Dafydd, the Joy Formidable bassist, said. “If you did that in the Seventies people would be, ‘Whatever.’ You do it now, people think, ‘Holy s---!’ Some people think it’s the f---ing greatest track on the entire album, and some people think it’s f---ing boring. It’s that element of needing to challenge people.” The band concluded through the song’s lyrics that love was the “everchanging spectrum of a lie.”

More Song Stories entries »

Update: Pussy Riot Members Found Guilty, Get Two-Year Prison Terms