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Edward Snowden has nowhere to go

Tue, 02 Jul 2013 10:49:00 +0000

Edward Snowden is trying to get out of the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport but he's having trouble finding a place to go.

According to Wikileaks.org, Snowden has also submitted asylum requests to Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Venezuela Ecuador and Iceland.

CBS News reports on some of his rejections:

Putin: Russia won’t turn over Snowden

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 15:37:00 +0000

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would not turn over leaker Edward Snowden to the U.S. but was fuzzier on whether the fugitive can stay in Russia, Reuters reported:

If Snowden wants to stay in Russia he "must stop his work aimed at harming our American partners".

Snowden "is not a Russian agent", Putin said, repeating that Russian intelligence services were not working with the fugitive American, who is believed to remain in the transit area at a Moscow airport eight days after arriving from Hong Kong.

He said Snowden should choose his final destination and go there.

Pussy Riot members moved to far-flung prison colonies

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:59:00 +0000

MOSCOW — A lawyer for the two jailed Pussy Riot band members says they have been transferred to prison colonies hundreds of miles from Moscow to serve their sentence.

Mark Feygin said Monday that Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were transferred during the weekend from Moscow prison, where they were kept since March. Feygin said prison authorities informed him that Alekhina had been sent to the Perm region in the Urals and Tolokonnikova to the central province of Mordovia. He could not confirm the information with his clients.

Alekhina, Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred in August for performing a protest prayer against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral in February, and given two-year sentences. Samutsevich was released on appeal earlier this month.

Today’s news in pictures

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 21:08:00 +0000

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Orthodox Russian deacon supports Pussy Riot

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:30:00 +0000

TAMBOV, Russia (AP) — Sergei Baranov keeps his clerical robes hanging neatly in his closet, but he believes he will never again wear them inside a Russian Orthodox Church.

Baranov, who had led a quiet life as a deacon in the small city of Tambov, became an Internet celebrity last month when he asked to be defrocked in an open letter to the Moscow patriarchate, saying he was outraged by the church's stance against three members of the punk band Pussy Riot.

The feminist rockers were sentenced to two years in prison after singing a "punk prayer" against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main cathedral, a stunt that divided Russians.

Even some of the devout who did not approve of the women's high kicks at the cathedral's pulpit in February spoke out against the trial and what appeared to be the church's heavy-handed involvement. Baranov gave them a strong a public voice — and gave up his calling in order to back up his beliefs.

Baranov told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he supports the band's stunt and does not regret his resignation.

"Everyone prays as they can," Baranov said of the Pussy Riot members. "And with their act they exposed the ills and blisters of society. We should have done that a long time ago."

Russia expels anti-Putin lawmaker

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 13:11:00 +0000

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's parliament on Friday expelled a lawmaker who turned against President Vladimir Putin, paving the way for similar action against others who have joined the opposition movement in a clear sign that the Kremlin is intensifying its crackdown on political dissent.

The 293-150 vote to expel Gennady Gudkov from the State Duma also removes his immunity from prosecution, and his supporters fear he could face arrest. Gudkov, a KGB veteran like Putin who once represented the main Kremlin party in parliament, helped stage a series of street protests against Putin's rule last winter.

Gudkov called the vote "political revenge and extrajudicial repression," and described the accusations - that he was involved in a business in violation of parliament rules - as a sham.

The vote to expel Gudkov came a day before the first major opposition rally after a summer break, a Kremlin signal to the opposition that it will take an increasingly tough line against dissent. Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin political consultant, said it moved against Gudkov out of fear that his example might encourage other members of the ruling elite to join the opposition.

Pussy Riot denied bail

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:20:00 +0000

The following originally appeared on Heather Michon's Open Salon Blog.

A Russian court yesterday ruled that three members of the feminist punk rock collective known as Pussy Riot will remain in jail, a crushing end to a day of rumors, reportedly out of the Kremlin, that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich would be released on bail.

The three activists were arrested in March after allegedly staging a flash mob-style protest at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior on Feb. 21. Dressed in the group's signature scanty clothing and brightly colored balaclavas, Russian authorities say they and another performer walked up to the altar and launched into an impromptu performance of their anti-Putin, anti-church "punk prayer."

Parishioners and church officials hustled the women off of the altar in less than five minutes. A few days later, Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina and Samutsevich were charged with "hooliganism." If convicted, they face up to seven years in prison.