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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Sochi: Tolokonnikova & Maria Alyokhina, Breaking Up the Band

Sochi: Tolokonnikova & Maria Alyokhina, Breaking Up the Band

by Anne Laurie|  December 28, 20137:01 am| 32 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Sports

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sochi political prisoners danziger
(Jeff Danziger’s website)

From Reuters:

One of two freed members of punk protest band Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, said on Friday their release was aimed solely at improving Russia’s image before it hosts the Winter Olympic Games and was not a humanitarian gesture.

Tolokonnikova, 24, and Maria Alyokhina, 25, walked free under a Kremlin amnesty on Monday after serving more than 21 months of a two-year prison term for performing a profanity-laced “punk prayer” protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main Russian Orthodox cathedral.

Tolokonnikova said the Winter Olympics, due to be held in February in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, were Putin’s pet project and that anybody attending them would be supporting him…

Kat Stoeffel, at NYMag:

The two released but unrepentant members of Pussy Riot said in a press conference today that the Russian punk-protest band is breaking up.

“We are not Pussy Riot now,” Nadya Tolokonnikova said.

“We can promote our cause without playing any shows,” Maria Alyokhina added. “And we will never play any shows for money.”…

Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina will limit their artistic activities to inmates because Russia’s prisons are so bad that they require a “cultural revolution,” they said, and probably because when you call yourself a band you’re stuck doing interviews like this one with opposition “It” girl Ksenia Sobchak. Sobchak asked if Tolokonnikova, as the prettiest Pussy Riot member, was the Beyoncé of the group, bound to go solo, and, if so, was that sexist? Eye-roll gifs aplenty at Buzzfeed.


From the Washington Post:

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Reader Interactions

32Comments

  1. 1.

    Mark S.

    December 28, 2013 at 7:20 am

    Looks like David Gregory’s got some competition!

  2. 2.

    c u n d gulag

    December 28, 2013 at 7:45 am

    I’m waiting for our Reich-Wingers to claim that they’ve found Putin’s “lost American birth certificate,” so that they can run him for POTUS.

    He’s the manly-man of their dreams!

    But, maybe now that he’s releasing some of these prisoners, our Reich-Wingers will feel that he’s failed Conservatism, and isn’t Conservative ENOUGH!!!

  3. 3.

    Punchy

    December 28, 2013 at 7:53 am

    Im a bit surprised at the dearth of articles discussing the price tag of Sochi, and by inference, the insane level of corruption and graft in Russia.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    December 28, 2013 at 8:12 am

    @Punchy:

    No reporter wants to die from polonium poisoning.

  5. 5.

    Chyron HR

    December 28, 2013 at 8:23 am

    Stupid Pussy Rioters, don’t you know that Putin is a man of peace and lover of freedom, not like your Dear Leader Obama?

  6. 6.

    Tommy

    December 28, 2013 at 8:27 am

    I never thought I’d say I was a fan of Pussy Riot, but huge fan. They are stellar folks IMHO. I wish I was a little of them. I mean they were in a prison in Siberia. Ponder that last phrase for a second for two. Siberia.

  7. 7.

    Lee

    December 28, 2013 at 8:29 am

    Everyone should read this story prior to the Olympics.

    The short version is “Doku Umarov, the Chechen Islamist leader and self-styled Emir of the Caucasus, has promised to use “maximum force” to stop these Games.”

    I hope all the athletes make it home.

  8. 8.

    Tommy

    December 28, 2013 at 8:29 am

    @Baud: Funny thing. Reading Tom Clancy’s new book and polonium poisoning is at the core of it.

  9. 9.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    December 28, 2013 at 8:35 am

    @Tommy: Book packaging gimmick fail.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    December 28, 2013 at 8:40 am

    @Tommy:

    Wasn’t there another Clancy book that used planes as bombs pre-9-11?

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 28, 2013 at 8:41 am

    The real reason Putin is releasing Pussy riot.

  12. 12.

    Tommy

    December 28, 2013 at 8:42 am

    @Lee: In many days in my life I played sports. At high levels. Paid my way through college doing it. I honestly can’t imagine a world where I”d rather walking into an Olympic stadium carrying the flag of my nation, The March of the Nations! It was the ONE thing I wanted to do.

    I hope folks in Sochi stand up. Scream. I mean I am straight, but alas I was taught to be acceptable of folks not like me. I hope we bring some woop ass on their butts.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 28, 2013 at 8:44 am

    Hmmmm…. I have a comment in moderation. Could it be because in a post about the girls of Pu**y Riot I used the words “Pu**y Riot”? Inquiring minds want to know.

  14. 14.

    Tommy

    December 28, 2013 at 8:45 am

    @Baud: Yes. Killed all of Congress with a plane into Congress. Pre-9-11.

  15. 15.

    Tommy

    December 28, 2013 at 8:48 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Same here. Comment awaiting moderation :). I read a long from story about prison in Russia and it was staggering. Those ladies are a lot more bad ass then I am.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    December 28, 2013 at 8:48 am

    @Tommy:

    Hmm. Maybe the NSA should hire some English teachers to read up on Clancy plot lines?

  17. 17.

    c u n d gulag

    December 28, 2013 at 8:48 am

    @Tommy:
    How loudly did the public cheer?

  18. 18.

    mai naem

    December 28, 2013 at 8:55 am

    Damn, they got interviewed by the Russian version of Miss South Carolina. Also too, I saw a clip of the wimmen from Real Housewives of Atlanta(all black wimmen) where they’re at some historical site in Atlanta where the guide is talking about the Underground Railroad and one of the wimmen starts asking about where the opening was for the Underground Railroad because “they didn’t have electric trains like they have now, but they had to have an opening somewhere.” Her granddaddy was supposedly involved in the civil rights movement. She’s the wife of an NFL player.

  19. 19.

    gogol's wife

    December 28, 2013 at 9:33 am

    Tolokonnikova does the best eye-rolls.

  20. 20.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 28, 2013 at 10:02 am

    @Baud:

    From Clancy’s Wikipedia entry:

    On September 11, 2001, Clancy was interviewed by Judy Woodruff on CNN.[19] During the interview, he asserted “Islam does not permit suicide” (see Islam and suicide). Among other observations during this interview, Clancy cited discussions he had with military experts on the lack of planning to handle a hijacked plane being used in a suicide attack and criticized the news media’s treatment of the United States Intelligence Community. Clancy appeared again on PBS’s Charlie Rose, to discuss the implications of the day’s events with Richard Holbrooke, New York Times journalist Judith Miller, and Senator John Edwards, among others.[20] Clancy was interviewed on these shows because his 1994 book Debt of Honor included a scenario where a disgruntled Japanese airline pilot crashes a fueled Boeing 747 into the U.S. Capitol dome during an address by the President to a joint session of Congress, killing the President and most of Congress. This plot device bore strong similarities to the attacks of September 11, 2001.

  21. 21.

    Origuy

    December 28, 2013 at 10:25 am

    Clancy isn’t being prescient when he writes about polonium poisoning; Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB and FSB agent, died in 2006 apparently
    of it.

  22. 22.

    FourTen

    December 28, 2013 at 11:12 am

    As an fan of the Olympic ideal (that of the peaceful coming together of nations) I’m glad that in this small, indirect way the games have done some good.

  23. 23.

    Cassidy

    December 28, 2013 at 11:13 am

    I mean they were in a prison in Siberia. Ponder that last phrase for a second for two. Siberia.

    Yet, the NSA collecting the same information a person freely hands to a corporation was the death of freedom and liberty. And you people wonder why I’ve been such an asshole about it. Fucking wankers.

  24. 24.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2013 at 12:26 pm

    The members of the former Pussy Riot are absolutely correct about this.

    This is all a Putin PR offensive in preparation for his showcase in Sochi. See, we’re not so bad after all! Not only are we giving safe harbor to Ed Snowden, we’re letting these mouthy bitches, rival oligarchs, and meddlesome environmental protesters out of prison! We’re true human rights advocates!

  25. 25.

    Cronin

    December 28, 2013 at 12:28 pm

    @Cassidy: So, because being imprisoned in Siberia is far worse, no one should be upset about the NSA gathering private communications wholesale, without a warrant? Yeah, that makes total sense.

  26. 26.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2013 at 12:30 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It is. I just got tossed into moderation for using that particular word, which, apparently, is ONLY used to disparage men by comparing them to the incredibly tough and flexible female organ of sexual intercourse and birth.

    Perhaps we should use “puddy” (as in “puddy-tat”) as a substitute to not offend the easily offended?

  27. 27.

    Cassidy

    December 28, 2013 at 12:31 pm

    @Cronin: That’s not what I said at all. But, I’m not going to waste my time talking to a dipshit who can’t bother to apply a little reading comprehension because they’re too busy using all their brain cells to come up with lame, overused snark.

  28. 28.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 28, 2013 at 12:32 pm

    @Cronin:

    No, it’s when dudebros are fucked up enough to draw a seriously fucked up analogy between actual exile to Siberia to having their LOLcats stored by the NSA .

  29. 29.

    Cronin

    December 28, 2013 at 12:45 pm

    @Cassidy: I’m clearly missing the context you’re referring to with the “it” you say you’ve been an asshole about, and I’m not seeing any other comments in this thread so…I guess I’ll just let it drop.

    @Villago Delenda Est: Yeah, I’d agree. As above, I think I’m missing the context and I don’t see it in this post or in the comments. I guess maybe I’m just half asleep or you’re both referring to a previous post I haven’t read. If that’s the case, sorry.

  30. 30.

    Bill Arnold

    December 28, 2013 at 2:08 pm

    @Lee:

    The short version is “Doku Umarov, the Chechen Islamist leader and self-styled Emir of the Caucasus, has promised to use “maximum force” to stop these Games.”

    That’s a depressing story. Russia has been on my do-not-visit list since Grozny, reason “imperialist police state”. The recent anti-gay legislation just added another reason to not visit.
    In the early 2000s I worked with a young man (mid 20s) who was from Russia (had done his military duty in some nuclear unit). His comment at the time about Grozny was, very roughly paraphrased from memory, “with Muslims, you need to smash them down every 10 or 20 years.” This was a strongly held belief (it did not respond to pushback) and he suggested that it was a common attitude. It was depressing hearing this attitude from somebody young and quite smart.

  31. 31.

    different-church-lady

    December 28, 2013 at 2:56 pm

    Don’t you just hate it when you get released from prison for the wrong reasons?

  32. 32.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 28, 2013 at 10:57 pm

    @Bill Arnold: So, kind of like Michael Ledeen then?

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