CHERNOV’S CHOICE

By Sergey Chernov

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: September 26, 2012 (Issue # 1728)

Global Pussy Riot Day 2 in support of Pussy Riot’s imprisoned members is to be held on Monday, Oct. 1, the day of the appeal hearing on the verdict handed down to Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who were each sentenced to two years in prison on Aug. 17.

Tolokonnikova’s lawyer Mark Feigin said that he hopes that the campaign will be held in more than 100 cities across the globe. The first Global Pussy Riot Day was held on the day of the verdict and reportedly saw people gather in more than 60 cities worldwide.

On Sunday, Feigin took the stage to announce the Pussy Riot solidarity day during Peter Gabriel’s concert in New York.

Yoko Ono and Amnesty International awarded this year’s LennonOno grant for peace to Pussy Riot’s imprisoned members Friday. The award was accepted by Tolokonnikova’s husband Pyotr Verzilov, who was in New York with their daughter Gera, on behalf of the three women.

“I thank Pussy Riot in standing firmly in their belief for freedom of expression and making all women of the world proud to be women,” Ono was quoted by Reuters as saying.

On Thursday in Washington, Verzilov and Pussy Riot’s lawyers met with the American lawmakers who drafted the Magnitsky bill, whose aim is “to impose visa and banking restrictions on Russian officials implicated in human rights abuses.”

They proposed that the Magnitsky bill should be broadened to include the people responsible for the persecution of the punk group, so that similar sanctions would be imposed on them.

Those people include Judge Marina Syrova, who displayed open disregard for the law and backed the prosecution, and reporter Arkady Mamontov, who made mud-slinging programs about the group for Russian state television, among others.

Earlier this month, Feigin urged Muscovites to show their support by coming to the Moscow City Court on the day of the appeal hearing.

“There is no justice in Russia, there are no honest courts in Russia,” said Feigin, speaking at the Sept. 15 March of Millions in Moscow.

“The street should become the court, this is the only way to bring about changes inside Russia.”

In St. Petersburg, a rally will be held in support of Pussy Riot, the activists arrested and investigated in the wake of the May 6 rally on Bolotnaya Ploshchad and The Other Russia activist Taisia Osipova, who was sentenced to eight years in prison on fabricated drug distribution charges.

The St. Petersburg rally has been authorized by City Hall, according to organizer Yulia Alimova. It is due to be held on the Field of Mars at 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 1.

Alyokhina, Samutsevich and Tolokonnikova have been named “prisoners of conscience” by Amnesty International.

The appeal will be heard at 11 a.m. on Monday at the Moscow City Court.