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Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich of punk band Pussy Riot sit in a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Moscow on August 17.
MOSCOW -- A Russian court ruled Thursday that video footage of the Pussy Riot punk group protesting against President Vladimir Putin in a church was "extremist" and should be removed from websites.
The demonstration last February offended many Russian Orthodox Christians. But Putin has been criticized by U.S. and European leaders over what they saw as disproportionate jail sentences imposed on three Pussy Riot members.
Their trial was also seen by Putin's critics as part of a clampdown on dissent.
'Mass disorder'
The Moscow court said it had based its ruling on conclusions by a panel of experts who studied the video, showing band members in colorful mini-skirts and ski masks dancing in front of the altar of Moscow's main Russian Orthodox cathedral.
Members of the band Pussy Riot, arrested in February after storming a Moscow cathedral, were sentenced to two years in jail Friday. Critics say the arrest was Putin's personal revenge, raising questions about justice in Russia. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.
Judge Marina Musimovich said the footage "has elements of extremism; in particular there are words and actions which humiliate various social groups based on their religion." She said it also had calls for mutiny and "mass disorder."
The verdict said that free distribution of the video could ignite racial and religious hatred.
The court's ruling applies to other videos released by the band, including a performance in Moscow's Red Square, where calls for mass disorder could be heard. Such calls were not made inside the church.
The websites are now likely to be included in a state register and could be blocked if the banned content is not removed.
Protesters put head covers on sculptures in Norway to show their continued support of the jailed Russian punk rock group called "Pussy Riot." NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
The Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor said that once the court decision takes effect it will monitor how it is implemented.
Russian female punk rock protester moved to solo cell after tensions
Three members of Pussy Riot convicted in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for their "punk prayer," which the Russian Orthodox Church has cast as part of a concerted attack on the church and the faithful.
The women said the protest, in which they burst into Christ the Savior Cathedral and called on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin, was not motivated by hatred and was meant to mock the church leadership's support for the longtime leader.
Russian whistleblower dies in strange circumstances
Band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina are serving two-year jail sentences over the protest last February. A third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, walked free last month when her sentence was suspended on appeal.
"To me this is a clear attribute of censorship -- censorship of art and censorship of culture, of the protest culture which is very important for any country, let alone for Russia," Samutsevich told reporters outside court.
Three female punk rockers are put on trial in Russia after taking over the pulpit at an Orthodox cathedral and performing a controversial song criticizing President Putin. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
"Now of course the fact that they will be blocking all Pussy Riot videos as I understand, all photos -- this is horrible. Naturally, I will lodge an appeal and I will try to do it today," she added.
Freed Russian scientist: 'Nothing has changed'
Putin, a former KGB officer who has cultivated close ties with the Orthodox church over 13 years in power, has rebuffed Western criticism about the prison terms meted out.
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As Americans,when we hear such stories as this, we should appreciate that much more our own freedoms. No doubt the Russian people don't suffer under the delusion they have the same freedoms as we do when it comes to speaking out.But they surely thought there was a loosening up of restrictions. If there is ever to be some, it will come from the youth of that nation. But make no mistake, it will come at a heavy price. Freedom is always paid by the blood of patriots. As Thomas Jefferson noted, A little revolution every now and then is a healthy thing.
This is the exact reason why I LOVE being an American!!!! In the one important word from William Wallace, I say, "FREEDOM!"
Free Pussy!
Freedoms? The IRS is coming after me for inheritance money I never got. It was in a foreign bank and the foreign court so far has refused to give the money to us even then though me and my brother are the only heirs. Yet the IRS still wants us to pay taxes on it. So now we owe hundreds of thousands in death taxes on money we never got. Also if you ever had ISO stock options that dropped before you sold them back in the .com bubble you would have been hit by the same thing. I remember one family that owed about a million dollars in taxes on money they never got and would never receive. Yet the IRS still wanted their blood money. The US government will try to ruin you if they can do it by the letter of the law no matter how unfair it is. Their have been plenty of horror stories in this country yet people who have never been attacked by the government always tout us as having so many freedoms. Dream on.
Only people with "small weiner syndrome" lock up Free Pussy!
Cant think of any other reason folks. What next, lock up 'Free ass"?
Putin is as Putin does....
Freedom??? Oh, you mean the illusion of freedom they taught you in Social Studies class after they drilled you on the Pledge of Allegiance. Go ahead, ratchet your ideas, feelings and identity away on public media, see how long it takes until you lose your job and have a bunch of weirdos after you...
Looking at the picture of those 3 I wouldn't want to see any of their...well, you know :)
Sales of their music will rise. There is always an increase in support when a Government bans your music.
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”
~George Orwell, 1984
Wow....Russia could prosecute and demand extradition of any American (or other) who's Computer has any video Pussy Riot punk group protesting against President Vladimir Putin in a church on their computer!
Under the new UN supported Cyber Treaty Proposals they are trying to get passed, the US Government will have No Choice but to Comply with Russia's request!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrydownes/2012/11/26/un-agencys-leaked-playbook-panic-chaos-over-internet-treaty/
PS Anyone who thinks we are "Free" in America has either been in a Coma for the last 11 years since 9/11 or being intentionally Naive. Speaking of 9/11 watch this new PBS Documentary......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l-8PFk8j5I
Then come back "Bragging" about how much "Freedom" we still have!
Impeach Obama 2012 for the Cover Up Of Murder and his Secret CIA Prisons in Benghazi-Gate!
The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance. ~Thomas Paine
@MUW
Did someone forget to take their lithium this morning?
It seems kind of... counter productive.
This late after it was so publicly shown and available around the world is useless.
Hmmmm...Putin....Ex-KGB officer...censorship...jailed dissidents...is it me or does anyone else hear that Iron Curtain coming back down?
At least music can still be offensive somewhere on the planet.
It's not the music it's what they did. What alot of people don't understand is having freedom and being able to use that freedom as oppossed to using your freedom abusivly.
Pointless action, unless they block the entire Internet.
Ha! The USA is going the same root..Socialism is a live and well in the USA. Matter of time before they(USA) add 10K pages of what to say and not to the all ready millions of laws the USA has. Matter a fact the USA has more laws than the Whole world combine that includes the Bible laws. It just proves Russia is not so bad with there laws compare to the Idiot laws the USA has.
LOL, been nowhere and done nothing. Most countries have simple laws that people obey. If Americans were good little laws abiders there would a severe decline in lawyers, courts, and police. Not to mention the expense of all that expensive equipment. keep up the good work people and we will be paying for more government jobs in the future.
Putin... such a little man...
Personnally I like a person with Old Fashion Values.
yet another day where nbcnews
posts a sensational story about the lindsay lohan wrongful arrest while
censoring the people from revealing the whole story of what really happened and
making sure that misconceptions that people have are corrected before they’re
allowed to spread.
Through an annonymous source I have undeniable proof about
the conspiracy against mrs, lohan and yet for the second day in a row the story
about her on this website is the only one in which people cannot post comments.
Are they tied in to the extremist faction that is out to defame the young star?
I can’t exactly be sure but it absolutely is as suspicious as anything that
general petraeus did and yet the media largely staying silent.
Well this won’t
stop here because I’m going to print out the flyers that I made yesterday in
case it got to this point and hand them out outside of panera bread during peak
business hours and that whole mall-plaza will probablky want copies as well and
then in mere minutes word will spread and the awful truth will come out. So nice
try keepiong down the people but yet again justice will prevail and lady liberty
will reign supreme. World peace is
Wake up!!! Lindsey is on the MS side and not on the NBC side, yet. MS and NBC are not connected anymore and haven't been for a couple of months. Look at your page address and you'll see what I mean.
Top Ten Reasons to Panic about Putin
www.pointsincase.com/columns/andrei-trostel/top-ten-reasons-panic-about-putin
I wonder what they're going to do when Slam Dancing hit's the shores of Russia...
Ahhh, the angst of youth!
Putin is an Idiot. Hes elevated them to cult status now. They were nobodies before, now they are known world wide. He Putin, YOU ARE A MORON.
The Communists in Russia had 60 years to destroy the Orthodox Church. It is a shame they did not get the job done.
Why would you want the Orthodox Church destroyed?
Goes to show you, you can take the Russian out of the KGB thug culture, but you can't take the KGB thug culture out of the Russian.
Putin is a stalian in the making, I am going to put a video of pussy riot on my facebook page and on my webpage. Let the coward animal putin try to stop me I spit on putin he is the anti-christ. I call putin out are you man or monster? why do you oppress the people are you scared that the people will drive you out of power? This is the USA we don't recognize russian law.
You don't have to recognize Russian Law but I hope you know a little International Law. It might come in handy in the future.
Well their videos won't be coming down from my web sites, unless Putin Puts-out - to the tune of $100,000,000,000,000 in precious metal ingots. Or he can lick the sweaty back side of my scrot.
I still wonder how some people think that inoffensive freedom of expression is harmful or dangerous. Does restricting how other people act or think make them feel safer? Guys, using an umbrella doesn't stop the rain or the sunshine, it only stops you from getting wet or sun burned.
Reality continues to ruin my life in a daily basis.
Good post...
We should appreciate the freedoms we have while we still have them. This president and the liberal left are on their way to trampling on the Constitutional rights they do not like and replacing them with "rights" that are not enumerated. Freedom of expression...just ask the individual jailed for alledgedly producing the video that supposedly caused the riots in Benghazi that resulted in the death of our ambassador. Of course BO and Susan Rice had their freedom of expression to lie about the cover up for weeks after.
How about our freedom of religion while the White House insists that Catholic or other religious institutions must cover birth control or abortion even if this is contrary to their basic tenants?
How about the loony left always wanting to trample on our Second Amendment rights. They want to cut back on police services and take our guns away so we have no protection. It won't be long before they start going after our right to assembly as well so that we can't protest these opressive rules.
However they will find a way to provide "rights" to birth control, abortion, drivers licenses for illegal aliens and a whole host of other give aways to the non-producers or the leaches in the country.
This is what BO meant when he told Medvadev he would have more "flexibility" after the election.
Ban these malcontent, disillusioned, bad mouthed, disrespectful, anti-social and ill-behaved idiots from russian influence and culture ?? ......wish we can do that here !!!!!!
Hooliganism?
Well it's time to go when the airheads start pushing Benghazi, that they know nothing of. You all have a good evening.
Get ready .. Obama has set up things to take this kind of control via courts and the media here ... Frankly ALL of Gov on both sides of congress take more and more of our freedoms away and do it with our money and expect us to praise them in the process ...
Pretty soon we will be the United Soviet States of America.
Russia is only proving they are so worried about the acceptance of the Communist Party and Vladimir Putin's regime that they are gradually drifting back to the ways of Josef Stalin -- where if history doesn't suit you, delete it and rewrite it. It is also clear that the original episode really didn't offend the Russian Orthodox Church, but Vlad Putin, himself, since the church said they would drop charges -- but Putin the dictator was unswayed. What would the US be like with an ex-spy as a president?