5 Defiant Moments From Pussy Riot’s Closing Statement

Yekaterina Samutsevich speaks out on why she stood up to Putin and his violation of church-state separation at Pussy Riot’s now-notorious cathedral demonstration.

1.

“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.”

Yekaterina Samutsevich sits in the defendant’s cell on August 8.

Image by SERGEI KARPUKHIN / Reuters

2.

“Our sudden musical appearance in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior with the song ‘Mother of God, Drive Putin Out’ violated the integrity of [its] media image, generated and maintained by the authorities for so long, and revealed its falsity.”

The cathedral protest that got Pussy Riot arrested.

Source: animalnewyork.com

3.

“In our performance we dared, without the Patriarch’s blessing, to combine the visual image of Orthodox culture and protest culture, suggesting to smart people that Orthodox culture belongs not only to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Patriarch and Putin, that it might also take the side of civic rebellion and protest in Russia.”

Samutsevich being escorted to a court room on Wednesday, Aug. 8.

Image by Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP

4.

“In the end, considering all the irreversible political and symbolic losses caused by our innocent creativity, the authorities decided to protect the public from us and our nonconformist thinking. Thus ended our complicated punk adventure in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.”

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich behind bars on July 23, 2012.

Image by Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP

5.

“I now have mixed feelings about this trial. On the one hand, we now expect a guilty verdict. Compared to the judicial machine, we are nobodies, and we have lost. On the other hand, we have won. Now the whole world sees that the criminal case against us has been fabricated. The system cannot conceal the repressive nature of this trial.”

Read the full statement here.