Tag Archives: russia

Murmansk to St. Petersburg

Russian authorities have transferred Frank Hewetson and his twenty-nine Greenpeace activists from Murmansk to a St. Peterburg prison. This might seem like good news, however families and friends have yet to be in contact with the prisoners and the charge of environmental hooliganism carries a sentence of seven years. This charge was leveled against the […]

Free Frank Hewetson and the Arctic 30

Last month my friend Frank Hewetson was arrested for hooliganism by Russian authorities. 27 other Greenpeace activists and two photographers were also incarcerated for taking part in a protest against Arctic oil exploration. Initially they were charged with piracy. Hooliganism is the same charge levied against the punk band PUSSY RIOT. They got seven years. […]

Na zda-ró-vye Nyet

Soviet Russia attempted three times to curtail alcohol consumption. The last temperance movement was in 1985-1987 under Mikhail Gorbachev. Vodka and other spirits were rationed throughout the USSR and public drunkenness was punished by prison time. The loss of tax revenue was in the hundreds of billions of rubles and this economic shortfall led to […]

Pussy Rioter’s Final Statement

Yekaterina Samutsevich: Closing Statement at the Pussy Riot Trial During the closing statement, the defendant is expected to repent or express regret for her deeds, or to enumerate attenuating circumstances. In my case, as in the case of my colleagues in the group, this is completely unnecessary. Instead, I want to express my views about […]

Pussy Riot Freedom

Show trial in the USSR were an integral instrument of Stalin’s oppressive regime and the practice has been revived in Vladimir Putin’s Russia to stifle any and all demonstrations against his rule. Last February three members of the punk group Pussy Riot entered Moscow’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ to perform PRAYER beseeching the Mother […]