Pussy Riot trial shows Putin's authoritarianism

The sentence against the three singers of the punk band Pussy Riot, who are standing trial for singing an anti-Putin song in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, will be handed down in Moscow today. The trial perfectly illustrates Putin's authoritarian system, the daily Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace writes: "The proceedings against the punk trio that has been declared public enemy number one has unmasked Russian domestic policy, which is as brutal as a whiplash. The ruler in the Kremlin could not care less that each attack on human rights prompts an international outcry. He knows full well that the world can't get along without him and that he is unassailable from outside his country. With this trial he wants to accentuate his total control over Russian society, over the courts and the Orthodox Church, which are the indispensable pillars of the regime. The people are to be made to understand and accept that their only freedom is to remain silent, and that there is no room for protest."

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