MUMBAI: Support for jailed Russian female punk rockers Pussy Riot is gathering steam as iconic world figures are voicing demand for their freedom and bestowing honour for their demonstration against authoritarian Kremlin government.Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently touring the US, has publicly called for the release of jailed members of the Russian female punk band. Speaking at a meeting held yesterday by Amnesty International in Washington, DC, Suu Kyi called for the release “as soon as possible”.
“I don’t see why people should not sing whatever they want to sing,” Suu Kyi said in reference to the group, which was found guilty in August. The band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30 are serving a two year sentence in a labour camp in Russia for hooliganism motivated by ‘religious hatred’ over a performance against President Vladimir Putin in an Orthodox cathedral in Moscow.
The band is scheduled to appeal on 1 October.The Burmese opposition lawmaker, who herself has spent 15 years under house arrest, said,” Would like the whole group to be released as soon as possible. Was anything in the song that was nasty to other people?”When told her comments could be seen as criticizing the Russian government, she said that “governments must be prepared to take criticism.””It’s a different matter if you are insulting other people individually,” Suu Kyi told the audience.Pussy Riot will also be awarded the ‘LennonOno Peace prize’ initiated by ex-Beatle John Lennon and his widow Yoko Ono.Ono will give the biennal prize to Pyotr Verzilov, husband of Tolokonnikova.
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The band has also been nominated for the European Parliament`s Sakharov prize for freedom of thought, named after Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov.
