The pope's position was announced in comments posted on the website of Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, following a meeting at the Vatican on Tuesday between the pople and Kirill's external affairs representative.

The Turkish Weekly quoted the Russian Church: "Pope Benedict XVI has expressed solidarity with the Russian Orthodox Church's position on the issue and perplexity over the reaction of a number of media to these events."

The post on the site said the pope also expressed his "words of support to the Russian Church in connection with the blasphemous act in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in February."

The report said that in September, a man poured ink on an icon in the central Moscow cathedral. Earlier, vandals sawed down crosses in three Russian regions. In March a man chopped 38 icons in the Vologda Region with an ax. The events followed February's "punk prayer" by the Pussy Riot punk band in the Christ the Savior Cathedral.

An edited clip of Pussy Riot's protest in late February posted online showed the group alternately high-kicking near the entrance to the altar of the Christ the Savior Cathedral, accompanying the "Holy S**t" song urging the Virgin Mary to "drive [Vladimir] Putin out."

The song contained words insulting to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and to believers, the report added.

Three band members were found guilty of hooliganism aimed at inciting religious hatred and jailed for two years each on August 17. The prison term for one of them was later replaced with a suspended sentence.

The trial and sentences attracted unprecedented media attention and international criticism, which Moscow dismissed as "groundless" saying the band's act was not an issue of artistic performance but was "insulting to millions of Orthodox [Christian] believers."

The band said their performance was not aimed at insulting believers' feelings.

The Independent newspaper said the pope's spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, would not confirm the comments, saying "I have nothing to say. This was reported on the site of the Russian Patriarch and it was about a meeting I was not privy to. I have no intention of disturbing the pope to ask him about it."

Sources

• Turkish Weekly
• The Independent
• ABC News
• Image: AP/AFP/ABC News

A report by the Associated Press, however, said it was unclear whether the women, who were sentenced to two years last month, would offer a penitence sought by the Church and how much leniency a court may show.

In Sunday's statement, the Church reaffirmed its condemnation of the women's raucous stunt, saying such actions "can't be left unpunished." But it added that if the women show "penitence and reconsideration of their action," their words "shouldn't be left unnoticed."

A Moscow appellate court, menwhile, postponed a hearing on Monday in the case of the punk protest band after one of three defendants said that she wanted to fire her lawyers because of disagreements.

Earlier this month, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that keeping the band members in prison any longer would be "unproductive."

Putin himself reportedly said the women should not be judged too harshly.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were arrested in March after dancing and high-kicking at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral as they pleaded with the Virgin Mary to save Russia from Putin, who was elected to a third presidential term two weeks later.

They said during their trial in August that they were protesting the Russian Orthodox Church's support for Putin and didn't intend to offend religious believers.

Since his inauguration in May, Putin has taken an increasingly tough stance against dissent in response to a series of massive winter protests against his 13-year rule.

Violetta Volkova, one of the three lawyers for the women, said Friday after visiting a prison where the band members are being held that she had little hope for a fair sentence in a country where courts bow to the authorities.

Sources

• AP/National Post
• AP/Boston Globe
• The New York Times
• Image: AP/Boston Globe

The one constant between then and now is a state hostile to free minds and free speech.

The prosecution of the singers from the all-female band Pussy Riot represents a new low in political repression in post-Soviet Russia. But it is also a cautionary tale about the entanglement of church and state.

On Feb. 21, in the midst of Vladimir Putin's campaign to reclaim the presidency, Pussy Riot brought its guerrilla theater to Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Wearing their trademark colorful short dresses and balaclavas, the young women ran out in front of the altar and began a song-and-dance act which opened with a "punk prayer chant": "Mother of God, Blessed Virgin, deliver us from Putin." Subsequent lyrics — only a small portion of which was audible before the group was hustled away — denounced the close ties between the church and the regime ("the head of the KGB is their patron saint").

Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich were charged with "hate-motivated hooliganism" and held without bail, even though two of them have small children. The charge carries penalties of two to seven years' imprisonment; the prosecution is asking for three. There is no jury, and the judge has shown blatant bias against the defense throughout the trial, which wrapped up Wednesday. The verdict is due next week.

This case is clearly political, and is part of a larger crackdown on discontent. Yet it is also no accident that the group's performance in the cathedral — and not, say, an earlier protest in which they sang a vulgarity-laced anti-Putin song on Red Square — was singled out. Turning dissent into sacrilege, the indictment accused the women of malicious intent to "demean the feelings and beliefs" of Orthodox Christians; in his closing argument, the prosecutor asserted that their lyrics "blasphemed against God." Continue reading