This Russia Today video says about itself:
Why You Should Care: Pussy Riot (E3)
As members of girl punk band Pussy Riot are facing years of jail for a blasphemous song in Russia’s main cathedral, Tim explains to robopal why giving harsher punishment if the offense concerns religion, is dangerous for society.
READ MORE http://on.rt.com/ctiscv
By Paddy McGuffin in Britain today:
Protests will take place around the world tomorrow in solidarity with members of Russian feminist guerilla-punk collective Pussy Riot as the Moscow court in which they are being tried prepares to hand down its verdict.
From Reuters:
Pussy Riot not a big hit with Russian pop stars
Alissa de Carbonnel
16 August, 2012 19:00
From Madonna to ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, pop singers worldwide have demanded the release of three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot during their trial over an anti-Kremlin protest on a church altar.
But the response from top musicians inside Russia has been muted. When asked about the case, many Russian performers seem puzzled by the support from abroad.
“What is so great about Pussy Riot that all these international stars support them?” asked veteran Russian singer Valeria on her personal website. “They must be saying this because someone ordered them to.”
Music insiders say Russia’s biggest stars may be wary of falling out with President Vladimir Putin for fear of jeopardising their main source of income – high-paying private concerts for the super-rich.
Putin jails Pussy Riot activists and cracks down on opposition protest: here.
Reblogged this on NonviolentConflict.
How hilarious/ sad that Russian singer Valeria thinks its possible to “order” western singers to protest about the issue… Russian ideas about freedom of expression are still rudimentary it seems.
Hi Valerie, I have not read the complete interview with Valeria, so I don’t know what she means exactly. But it seems that she suggests there is direct governmental pressure on singers in Western countries, which would indeed make her wrong; certainly on the Pussy Riot issue.
However, indirect pressure on musicians in Western countries does exist, usually by corporations. In the 1970s, a Candadian punk rock band lost their recording contract, because their record company wanted them to sign a declaration that they supported the mass killing of baby seals in Canada, and they did not want to sign that.
Many US American etc. artists suffered from boycotts for opposing the Iraq war, especially from very powerful pro Iraq war radio station owners, concert organizers, etc. Clear Channel. Among the boycotted artists: Bruce Springsteen,
http://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/usa-clear-channel-is-censoring-bruce-springsteen/
and most (in)famously the women country band the Dixie Chicks who were punished for saying that they were ashamed that George W Bush was from Texas, like them:
http://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2006/10/27/usa-pro-bush-big-media-censor-dixie-chicks/
As for the lack of solidarity with Pussy Riot from many older generation musicians in Russia: apart from the points named in the Reuters article there may also be an issue of established older tendencies disliking “rebellious” tendencies like punk.
Thank you for this really informative reply – I really appreciate you giving me the time you must have spent on it. I certainly have a rather different perspective after reading all this.
You are amazing .
Thanks so much Valerie for your compliment! I have the advantage of a large blog archive from ever since 2005, most of which I was able to save when in December last year I had to move from Blogsome to WordPress.
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