Yekaterina Samutsevitch, one of the three members of Russian female punk band Pussy Riot, has been freed on appeal Link to this video
Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich, who recently switched lawyers, has just been given a suspended sentence on appeal. The two other band members, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, remain behind bars.
Moscow newsrooms erupted when the news came in and Twitter was flooded with both joy and reservation.
What just happened? Was this a small triumph for Russia’s beleaguered justice system? Or a cynical appeal to confuse and divide both the punk group and, by extension, Russia’s protest movement?
If you pay close attention to the justice system in Russia, you’ll notice that it can get pretty personal. This isn’t something unique to Russia, but it’s an element of the justice process that gets a lot of play in the press – especially if it’s prominent oppositionists on trial.
Based on the antagonism between the original Pussy Riot judge, Marina Syrova, and the lawyers for the punk group, one gets the sense that Samutsevich was probably smart to switch her old lawyer, Violetta Volkova, for Irina Khrunova.
I don’t believe this comes down to a discussion about which lawyer is better at her job – much like Volkova, Khrunova is a prominent member of the legal establishment. Rather, the issue is that the judges in Moscow were unimpressed with the way the defence conducted the case.
The original trial of the punk band, who were sentenced to two years in a penal colony for performing a “punk prayer” against Vladimir Putin in Russia’s main cathedral, was heavily politicised on both sides of the pro-Kremlin and anti-Kremlin divide. Prominent opposition figures, including anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny, were invited to testify in favour of the three women on trial – and were ultimately barred from doing so.
It was a circus of grandiose proportions and with sinister overtones for the defendants and their families. When the appeal hearing came round, Samutsevich probably reasoned that it was time to switch tactics. For her, this made perfect sense.
During the original trial, much emphasis was placed on the blasphemy of the women doing their dance right in front of the altar. While their stunt was obviously offensive for many Orthodox Christians (myself included), the emphasis placed on religion during the court proceedings made one wonder if we were back in the dark ages all of a sudden. And the text of Judge Syrova’s verdict once again emphasised the dancing, the moves and the scandalous attire of the punk rockers.
But Samutsevich never got to dance in front of the altar, you see. According to the security camera footage, and to all of the testimony that was given in court, she never made it that far. Security guards escorted her away before she could join the other women in their performance.
Following the performance, Samutsevich willingly gave testimony to the police. She never tried to hide from justice. And her arrest in the early spring of this year was quite a shock at the time.
Lawyer Khrunova pounced on all of this. The text of her appeal is dry and straightforward. Samutsevich’s actions should have been judged on her own merit – as per Russian law.
But the appeal, in arguing against the idea that Samutsevich was motivated by religious hatred, also does not shy away from the fact that the performance was political. Samutsevich has not backed away from her views. She believes that it’s her commitment to opposition politics that has led to her persecution.
When Samutsevich first switched lawyers it was pointed out that she probably got tired of spending time behind bars “for the sake of publicity”. I think that Samutsevich correctly understood that she had a way out – and that judges in Moscow were seriously prejudiced against her original lawyer. In that sense, Samutsevich played her cards right.
She bid her fellow band members an emotional goodbye in court, and her lawyers expressed happiness at the decision – as well as bewilderment at the fact that Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina, both of whom have small children at home, remain behind bars.
Just a few days ago, Vladimir Putin expressed satisfaction at the Pussy Riot sentencing and thus the sudden leniency shown toward Samutsevich could have been a means of re-establishing some sense of independence for the courts were it not for the fact the decision was so clear cut. And while it’s disturbing that clemency shocks us, nowadays, what’s more disturbing is that two of these women will not be rejoining their families any time soon.