tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043332942481206469.post8541460946150412478..comments2024-03-04T15:23:07.880+00:00Comments on Northern Voices: NORTHERN VOICES: The Russian ConnectionBlanco Posnethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11288856212231100137noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043332942481206469.post-35997224757503804652012-08-02T13:20:50.496+01:002012-08-02T13:20:50.496+01:00On Tuesday, Russian investigators charged blogger ...On Tuesday, Russian investigators charged blogger & anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny with embezzlement, which carries a sentence of 10 years. This represents a raft of charges against members of the new Russian protest movement. For 12 years, President Putin has mostly refrained from carrying out criminal prosecutions against activist leaders, being content to sideline them and to limit their access to the media, but now it seems that hasher measures are at hand if these new cases are fully processed.bammyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13889214646896381113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043332942481206469.post-87082692393635605812012-08-02T12:52:38.402+01:002012-08-02T12:52:38.402+01:00Last Monday in Moscow, three members of the Russia...Last Monday in Moscow, three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot pleaded not guilty to changes of hooliganism and religious hatred in a case reflecting a Kremlin crackdown of freedom of expression and opposition to the Putin regime. Pussy Riot members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, aged from 22 to 29, admitted to putting on an impromptu rock concert in Moscow's Christ The Saviour Cathedral, last February. The song's lyrics lambasted President Putin with heavy-profanity was also admitted. But they said the concert, lasting two minutes, had been a political statement, not anti-religious, and that a potential sentence of up to seven years in jail was over-the-top.bammyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13889214646896381113noreply@blogger.com