Tag Pussy Riot

Risky protests

Yesterday’s World Cup final was interesting in more ways than one: Protest group Pussy Riot, long a thorn in Vladimir Putin’s side, claimed responsibility Sunday for four people who brought the World Cup final to a brief halt by running…

Russistan’s blasphemy law?

Observer.com, formerly the New York Observer, reports from Russia: Thursday morning in a Moscow courtroom, YouTuber Ruslan Sokolovsky was sentenced to three and a half years probation for an August stunt in which he filmed himself playing Pokémon Go in…

The Lord’s refuse

Christopher Caldwell’s speech at Hillsdale College, How to Think About Vladimir Putin, suggests an angle and a point of view symptomatic of a certain strain of thought on the American right. I believe it rests on error. No matter what…

Try a different pair of glasses

NYC artist Molly Crabapple complains that American “dissidents” are being ignored by American supporters of dissidents worldwide. I suspect that the author has succumbed to an optical illusion. Molly Crabapple was a close and sympathetic observer of the Occupy movement…

Lessons from Net wars

While debating the Meredith Kercher murder case on discussion boards and in comments sections, I came to believe that most pro-guilt, anti-Knox posters were arguing in bad faith. Rather, they are propagandists using a variety of tools: lies, half-truths, misconceptions,…

When in doubt, call them hooligans

Russia has announced that it will be replacing the original piracy charges against the Greenpeace 30 with hooliganism and, for some, resistance to lawful authorities. Hooliganism is becoming a one size fits all charge – unexpectedly linking Pussy Riot and…