Anyhow, Wojtek is right on with regard to an aspect I didn't even think of - sexism.
What I would like to ask Mark is whether he didn't understand the reaction of even Russian punks. Having lived in Russia for about 10 years (about the same time as Mark and Matt Taibbi), I found myself often perplexed by Russians. I don't mean to put all Russians in one barrel, but I can count maybe on one finger the number of Russians and ex-Soviets I knew who were not sexists, nationalist, anti-Semitic, racist. In fact I don't know one Russian who didn't possess at least one of these characteristics in some form. Don't get me wrong. I grew up in Alabama and while I was growing up the number would have probably been the same.
Anyhow, I'm not at all certain that some punks and others aren't supporting Pussy Riot due to Western support. I think it more likely that a lot of the youth, while I was there (left at the end in 1998), were against anything having to do with the Soviet regime and supported anything they saw as being against the Soviet regime. The Russian Orthodox Church would be seen as anti-Soviet. Also the Russian Orthodox Church is seen as the bearer of the Russian soul.
I just read an article in which the lead singer of the Russian rock group DDT, who I really like, more or less supported the Church and not Pussy Riot. His argument was they like the skinheads are extremists.
Admittedly I'm surprised by the reaction. But at the same time I'm not surprised. Who was it Churchill who said, Russia is an enigma wrapped in an enigma. Now you can see why.
I guess if I were still over there I'd be having a lot of arguments. But that would be nothing new. My wife, btw, is Russian and she feels their antics were over-the-top, but she's totally against throwing them in jail for it.
Curtis Vaughan
> A beefed up version of this posting can be found here
> http://wsokol.blogspot.com/2012/08/whats-so-outrageous-about-pussy-riots.html
>
>
> --
> Wojtek
>
> "An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."
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