Unnecessary shows of force often belie the inherent weakness of an authoritarian regime. A government can use fear to influence its people, but overcoming that fear reveals the ugliness behind its perpetrators. A few weeks ago, President Xi Jinping of China outlawed the popular children series, Winnie the Pooh, after visual comparisons between him and the hungry bear went viral. Though a show of force, it was not a show of strength.
Russian police arrested Masha Alekhina and Olya Borisova of Pussy Riot on Sunday in response to their protest of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov’s imprisonment. Sentsov, who in 2014 publicly claimed that he did not recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea, was arrested on suspicion of plotting terrorist acts. The young filmmaker who enjoyed early success in his career had been helping bring food and supplies to Ukrainian servicemen trapped in Crimea. After being held uncharged for three weeks, the Russian government sentenced Sentsov to twenty years in a prison camp.
Alekhina and Borisova took to the streets of Yakutsk, Siberia, wielding a banner reading “Free Sentsov” and setting off flares on a bridge near Sentsov’s detention center. The spectacle of their protest involved plumes of blue, purple and red smoke drifting up into the air above a sign that spelled out their very simple demand in blood-red lettering. The band tweeted, “2 pussy riot members are in a police station now,” this morning, and later released another announcement that they had been released, along with their picture.
Pussy Riot will perhaps go down in history not for their music but for their commitment to freedom in the face of extreme adversity. The band burst onto the international stage in 2012 after storming the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow to perform their song, “Punk Prayer,” that describes an unhealthy relationship between the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church. Putin didn’t seem impressed. Guards dragged the band out of the church while the audience watched or filmed. Since, they’ve been involved number of other protests, arrests, and releases. Today is no different. The band has never relented in bringing their disagreements with the Russian government to an international level. Fortunately or unfortunately, it is perhaps their fame alone that keeps them out of worse trouble with Vlad and his cronies. The Russian government’s response to Pussy Riot’s protests ultimately reveals its inherent weakness, one characterized by a basic fear of truth.
Pussy Riot recently announced an eight-week theatre piece at London’s Saatchi gallery, recounting the “epic ordeal when they were arrested, forced through a flawed judicial system and finally transported to a Russian jail” in 2012. The band displays a rigorous and unwavering commitment to their cause at every turn. A government can arrest people; ideas are untouchable.
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