You may be laughing, but what you are looking at is religion in America maybe 30-40 years from now.

1) Under the Soviets and their opposition to religion, religion became a protest against the government. In the same way, the black market became a protest against the government economy, and eventually highly organized Russian Mafia became a way of, if not protest, at least getting around the government-controlled economy. So religion and the black market and the local Mafia became protests against a failed Soviet system.

2) When Putin took control he rode the wave of protest. The more highly-placed KGB officers, the leaders of the Russian Mafia and Russian Orthodox Church leaders became his cronies and millionaires or multi-billionaires. The Russian Mafia was allowed to continue to extort and evade the system, but now they were working on the behalf of the Russian government and soon took over much of the previously "free" black market economy. The Russian Orthodox threw its full support behind Putin who they perceived to be a "friend."

3) So you would up with a government controlled by around 140 or so powerful people. They, in turn control the economy, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the government. Religion has become a sop for the lower class (Russia has only a tiny Middle Class) that consists of about 90+% of the people. And religion is controlled by Putin.

4) Most educated people over the age of around 20 or so were so indoctrinated by the old Soviet regime that they do not really have a firm religious belief, but rather just kinda go along with religion because it can be a valuable form of networking and patronage. The younger people see religion as a stumbling block to any meaningful political reform, since Putin has often used "religious freedom" as a way to punish political dissent.

Conducting a protest in a primary cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, when seen in context, is a logical form of political, not religious, protest and a perfect forum for insulting Putin directly. The reactions to this demonstration, and much more to the waves of protests against Putin in major cities, has forced the Putin government to show its Satlinist penchant for brutal repression of dissent.

Everything about the Pussy Riot protests was carefully and thoughtfully orchestrated. From the name of the group (which has around 100 members) to the venues for protest, to the use of social media has been designed to protest against the Putin government while highlighting the "cronyism" between Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church.

While W may have found a soul mate in Putin, in truth, he is KGB-trained and governs through a combination of old Stalinist measures and a uniquely Russian perception of how American politicians operate. The constant shirtless macho photo ops of Putin are modeled after things like Romney's constant wearing of jeans and no tie in the recent campaign. It's just that this is seen through a Russian filter and is not particularly recognizable to an American.

What may bring down Putin in the end (I would give him only about a 50/50 chance of completing his term of office) will likely be a combination of the massive dissent using the social media and the fall of the Assad government. If Syria falls, Putin has invested a huge amount of political capital in Assad, and the Russian naval base at Targus is the only warm-water naval base (and the only overseas military base) that Russia has. If Assad falls, then it is very likely that any new government will not allow continuance of the Targus base and its loss will effectively cost Russia about 90% of the effeectiveness of the Black Sea Fleet which will be potentially bottled up in the Black Sea in the event of hostilities. This may not seem like a big deal here, but to Russians and especially to the Russia military, this would be a crushing blow. The opposition would jump on it like a flea onto a dog and the Russian military would most likely rethink its support of Putin.

But this protester knew exactly what she was doing. She knew that calling on her Russian "rights" and cross-examining witnesses and challenging the prosecutor would result in a prison sentence. Russian trials have around a 98% guilty rate as it is, but the sentence is often the only real question. This gal waved a red flag in fronr of the bull and well knew it when she did it.

The most likely reasons why she was transferred to a single-occupancy cell in a massively overcrowded prison are likely two-fold. a) The lower-class criminals in prison with her are likely to be virtually all hardline Putin supporters. I would think that there would be any number of criminals that would seek to curry favor with the Putin government (and probably get released from jail) if they killed or hurt her. b) Putting a person in "solitary" even when you call it a single-occupancy cell is a well-known way of breaking a person's will. The Russian government does not want this gal released eventually only to pop up as a Solvehetzin (sp?) style popular dissident. They would prefer to break her in prison and probably use things like her small son to keep her under control.

I'm with you george.