Pussy Riot's Big Squeeze in Russia's Judicial System is a Systematic World Problem

As we constantly reveal, Human Rights violations go almost hand in hand with government arrest and prosecution.

Members of Pussy Riot. Courtesy: euronews.com

(SALEM) - Most people are familiar with the plight of the Russian punk band, 'Pussy Riot'; their prison sentence as much as anything, is a result of having insulted Vladimir Putin, who found it appropriate as a president to be photographed shirtless which isn't exactly presidential.

Surely what they chose to do... climbing onto the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow last February to record a 'punk prayer' which lasted less than a minute, and then later became a viral video, was something they knew would not fly well. They tested the waters in a dangerous way, but in a country with the history of Russia's, it seems keeping tabs on the water temperature is a damned good idea.

Of course their unorthodox performance was critical of President Vladimir Putin and his close ties to the Russian Orthodox Church. They were arrested for "hooliganism" and for inciting religious hatred.

Today on the Washington Post Opinion page, their editorial board takes Russia to task. Russia, where a man named Stalin became the world's biggest murderer of his own people.

IN LATE 1933, a young writer in Moscow composed a 16-line poem that depicted a cruel and ghastly dictator, Joseph Stalin, with polished boots and thin-necked henchmen. “His thick fingers are bulky and fat like live-baits,” wrote Osip Mandelshtam. “He is forging his rules and decrees like horseshoes — into groins, into foreheads, in eyes, and eyebrows. Every killing for him is a delight. …” The poem led to Mandelshtam’s persecution, and he died in a Soviet prison camp five years later.

His poem, a satirical polemic, is worth recalling in the wake of a decision Friday by a Moscow judge to sentence three women who make up Pussy Riot, a punk rock band, to jail for two years as a punishment for their disrespectful performance art.

The three young women have held in custody with no possibility of bail since March. Now they have been sentenced to two more years. What is happening to them is part of a worldwide trend to silence opposition and political activism which is the basis and root structure for the very existence of the United States. However it is happening here too. Four night ago I was interviewed live by Press TV in Iran about U.S. federal government agents using battering rams to raid the homes of Occupy Activists in both Portland and Seattle. It is amazing that such Orwellian nightmares are taking place in my own country.

Stalin epigram, AKA The Kremlin Highlander We are living, but can’t feel the land where we stay, More than ten steps away you can’t hear what we say. But if people would talk on occasion, They should mention the Kremlin Caucasian. His thick fingers are bulky and fat like live-baits, And his accurate words are as heavy as weights. Cucaracha’s moustaches are screaming, And his boot-tops are shining and gleaming. But around him a crowd of thin-necked henchmen, And he plays with the services of these half-men. Some are whistling, some meowing, some sniffing, He’s alone booming, poking and whiffing. He is forging his rules and decrees like horseshoes Into groins, into foreheads, in eyes, and eyebrows. Every killing for him is delight, And Ossetian torso is wide. Russian: Мы живем, под собою не чуя страны... Russian: Мы живем, под собою не чуя страны...

But as our Human Rights Ambassador William Nicholas Gomes constantly reveals, Human Rights violations go almost hand in hand with government arrest and prosecution.

Just last night, an Oregon man named Rudwan Dawod was freed by the government of Sudan which several weeks ago, arrested this Peace Activist for 'terrorism' when he took part in a protest calling for government integrity.

As the Washington Post states,

What really has occurred in this case is that Pussy Riot was singled out to discourage others from challenging the establishment. It is wrong that three women in colorful costumes should be severely punished for a moment of expression. It is doubly wrong that they should be punished in the new Russia, where Stalin’s terrible legacy of pain is well known and should have been long ago abandoned.

I hope people are paying attention.

Read the WP Opinion: The Post’s ViewA Russian farce over a punk rock band

Al Franken and Tim King in Afghanistan

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans; he's covered British Royal Marines and in Iraq, Tim embedded with the same unit he served with in the 1980's.

He holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.

Tim's years as a Human Rights reporter have taken on many dimensions; he has rallied for a long list of cultures and populations and continues to every day, with a strong and direct concentration on the 2009 Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in Sri Lanka. As a result of his long list of reports exposing war crimes against Tamil people, Tim was invited to be the keynote speaker at the FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America) Conference in Baltimore, in July 2012. This is the largest annual gathering of North American Tamils; Tim addressed more than 3000 people and was presented with a traditional Sri Lanka ‘blessed garland’ and a shawl as per the tradition and custom of Tamil Nadu, India.

The notorious list comprising Tim's ancestors includes Pedro de Alvarado, the lieutenant of Hernando Cortez of Spain; King Phillip IV, Eleanor of Aquitaine and William the Conqueror. Perhaps most interestingly, King John; the dark force in the story Robin Hood, and also the last Spanish governor of California, a real person fictionalized as the arch rival of the character in Zorro, are in reality both Tim's multiple-great grandfathers.

Tim at his family ranch in Chino, California.

Others include a Confederate officer in the U.S. Civil War and a decorated 'hero' of the Mexican-American War and the so-called 'Indian Wars'. In fact on the east coast, Tim's lineage with the Slaughter and King families, pre-dates the Mayflower and several members of his family were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. He says his family's past; some of which is very dark; some quite chivalrous, presents a certain responsibility, and that in part drives his desire to see that people in today's world are not exploited or allowed to suffer in silence as victims of Human Rights violations, as people of previous times were.

In a personal capacity, Tim has written 2,026 articles as of March 2012 for Salem-News.com since the new format designed by Matt Lintz was launched in December, 2005. Serving readers with news from all over the globe, Tim's life is literally encircled by the endless news flow published by Salem-News.com, where more than 100 writers contribute stories from 23+ countries and regions.

Tim specializes in writing about political and military developments worldwide; and maintains that the label 'terrorist' is ill placed in many cases; specifically with the LTTE Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, where it was used as an excuse to slaughter people by the tens of thousands; and in Gaza, where a trapped population lives at the mercy of Israel's destructive military war crime grinder. At the center of all of this, Tim pays extremely close attention to the safety and welfare of journalists worldwide. You can write to Tim at this address: tim@salem-news.com. Visit Tim's Facebook page (facebook.com/TimKing.Reporter)