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Pussy Riot activists sent to secret harsh labor camps

Cory Doctorow at 9:12 pm Mon, Oct 22, 2012

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Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova have been sent to regions known for hosting Russia's harshest hard-labor camps, places that once served as Soviet gulags. The 24 and 22 year old mothers -- who performed a song protesting the Russian Orthodox Church's connection to the Putin regime in a cathedral -- have been sentenced to two years of hard labor. Though the regions to which they've been dispatched is known, no one -- not even their families -- has been allowed to know exactly which prison-camps they are incarcerated in. The Guardian's Miriam Elder reports from Moscow:

"These are the harshest camps of all the possible choices," the band said via its Twitter account on Monday.

...Confusion reigned on Monday as relatives and lawyers tried to assess exactly where the women were sent. Both Perm and Mordovia host several prison camps, some of which comprised the Soviet-era gulag system. Prison authorities declined to comment on the women's whereabouts.

Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova had petitioned to serve their sentences in Moscow, arguing that they wanted to be close to their children. Alyokhina has a five-year-old son named Filipp, while Tolokonnikova has a four-year-old daughter named Gera.

Pussy Riot band members sent to remote prison camps

(Image: Free Pussy Riot Posters & Designs 07, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from centralasian's photostream)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE:  corruption • human rights • protest • pussy riot • russia

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  • SoItBegins

    The more things change…

  • Jake0748

    I am so sorry.  I don’t really dig their music, but I love what they stand for.   What the fuck is wrong with Russia that they have to send these young moms to secret hard-labor prisons, for two years – just for 5 minutes of disrupting some “Cathedral”???

    Really? Don’t the Russian authorities and KGBs or whoever they are now, have anything better to do?

    Reminds me of an ancient Doonesbury strip.  “Dear Russkies, Please back off.   Love, Zonker.

    • niktemadur

      One nagging doubt in my mind – has the Orthodox church stepped in and petitioned the government for Christ’s forgiveness to these women?  Or are the priests flabby, flaccid and content in the arms of putrid Putin Russia?

      • http://www.facebook.com/boris.ivanov1978 Борис Иванов

        No. But they wrote that Christians shouldn’t avenge the act in illegal ways (killing the girls, beating them up etc).

      • Michael Rosefield

        I’m pretty sure the church was for punishing them as much as possible

      • http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki

         are you under the impression that the Church didn’t petition the government to throw these women in to prison in the first place?

  • paul_leader

    As much as I may frequently dispair of the UK justice system, it’s at times like this that I feel very lucky to live in a country with a comparatively functional and fair system.

    Not that it’s perfect, but we don’t send people to secret hard labour camps or regularly stick people in solitary for months or years at a time.

    • http://www.facebook.com/boris.ivanov1978 Борис Иванов

      There are no “secret camps” in Russia. It’s just a procedure. Moscow decides the region, local prison authorites decide the exact colony. That decision has not been made yet (it takes several days to sort everything out). For Tolokonnikova, it’s Colony 13 or Colony 14 in Mordovia. For Alekhina, it’s Colony 28 or Colony 32 in Perm. Those colonies are “first offenders only”. “Hard labor” means sewing. A lot of sewing.

      • http://twitter.com/kayest kayest

         Cory wrote “secret harsh labor camps”, perhaps a little sensationally?

      • IronEdithKidd

        That’s nice to know, Boris, but are you OK with the notion of Russia once again sending political prisoners to gulag?  Because that’s what this whole incident looks like to westerners.

        • Navin_Johnson

          Actually, this looks very familiar to this Westerner.

          America’s Pussy Riot

          Where’s Madonna when you need her…….

      • paul_leader

        That’s interesting to hear, and thanks for the further information.

        It reminds me of the other recent case involving one of the founders of The Pirate Bay. He is currently in solitary confinement in a Swedish jail. However a commenter on Slashdot who has actually been held under the same conditions described them as being radically different to what one thinks of when considering US style solitary confinement. They are actually kept in very good conditions, with entertainment, TV, radio, reading material etc, it’s not the borderline sensory deprivation that the US and many other countries use. I’m still not a fan of it, but it isn’t what most people think of when they hear “solitary confinement”.

        Out of curiosity, is it standard practice in Russia that all prisoners are sent to different parts of the country? Here it is generally the case that prisoners are housed as near to their homes and families as possible, assuming there is capacity. Are there no prisons in or near Moscow?

    • Swatch Paley

      Paul_leader: “As much as I may frequently dispair of the UK justice system, it’s at times like this that I feel very lucky to live in a country with a comparatively functional and fair system.”

      Yes, internalising the propaganda of your own country makes for more a more relaxed mind all right. Have you forgotten the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four, and the torture of Irish republican prisoners generally? Are you familiar with with house arrest orders of the Home Secretary? Do you have any clue what the British military were doing in Iraq? What do you think happens to a captured Taliban fighter?

      Britain has gone 400 years without a serious war on its territory. The United States is essentially uninvadable. This provides a good basis for developing liberal values in state institutions since there is nothing like a war to inculcate government paranoia.

      Russia was devastated repeatedly in the 20th century. No society is going to be a liberal beacon in that context. But it is likely to develop in that direction over the next century. In the meantime, western attempts to encourage a colour revolution with absurd promotion of liberal oppositions (never the more deeply rooted Communists of course!), and even absurder levels of publicity for Pussy Riot retard rather than help that evolution.

      • atimoshenko

        Japan? France? Germany? A history of violence is a poor excuse. Liberalism starts with an enlightened elite that drives a clean break with an illiberal past and lays the foundation for a more democratic transition. The process does not require much time.

        Unfortunately, Russia’s post-Soviet leadership has, so far, entirely lacked such a (admittedly uncommon) breed of individuals, while the West, forgetting the lessons of WWII, ignored the other path to a successful transition by choosing to gloat instead of lending a helping hand early on. As a result, Russia’s present-day power structures have become, entrenched, unchecked, an extractive. Historically, that has always ended in stagnation, collapse, or revolution. Speaking of revolutions, it is impossible for one to occur within a freely-informed population without significant genuine grass-roots support.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Britain has gone 400 years without a serious war on its territory.

        You mean besides the Blitz?

  • neroden

    This is best described as “the beginning”. 

  • L_Mariachi

    Both Perm and Mordovia host several prison camps, some of which comprised the Soviet-era gulag system.

    If they were kept under particularly brutal house arrest, would that be a home Perm?

    Sorry, I’ll get my coat.

    (I really like that painting btw.)

  • http://www.facebook.com/boris.ivanov1978 Борис Иванов

    There are no secret camps in Russia (we are not USA). Read my other replies. Girls’ exact placement is yet undecided. And there will be visits, no doubt about that. Although, not a lot of those (several long and short ones during a year)..

    • http://burntheflag.ca Jardine

      Are you sure? If there are secret camps, you might not know about them due to their secrecy.

  • atimoshenko

    Cruelty for the sake of cruelty, just to scare everyone else away from considering public expression of unsanctioned thoughts. Poor girls.

  • TheMudshark

    Here´s to the hope that shit like this will put the spark of rebellion into the minds of a generation.

  • IronEdithKidd

    I’d like to remind everyone that these are grown women we are talking about.  With children of their own.  These are not girls.

    That is all.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jazz.flute Maksim Tsvetovat

    Who is the author of the painting on the front page? I would love to buy a print…

  • Ryan_T_H

    I’m trying to think of what felony they would even be charged with. There is trespass and a handful of public nuisance type charges, but nothing with real jail time associated.