RFE/RL

Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky and author Lyudmila Ulitskaya speaking today with RFE/RL’s Russian Service in Moscow. Konchalovsky and Ulitskaya, along with some 100 Russian celebrities, signed an open letter calling for the release of jailed Pussy Riot band members.

“To be incarcerated in Russian pretrial detention is already torture. Fine, you can punish them for hooliganism and jail them for 15 days, but to hold them in prison for four months is outright savagery. Needless to say, I haven’t expected any justice from a Russian court in a long time, but the authorities must respond to this, particularly Vladimir Putin. I don’t believe this kind of action by a Russian court can be done without a nod from the top leadership,” says Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky in an interview with RFE/RL’s Russian Service. 

“This was an absolutely trifling incident that wasn’t even worth reporting, or it was worth two lines on the last page of a tabloid newspaper. But they turned it into a national scandal. This is absolutely idiotic. What’s most striking here is the spectacularly pathetic incompetence of the authorities, both state and church authorities, because what they’re doing is discrediting the church,” says Russian author Lyudmila Ulitskaya in an interview with RFE/RL’s Russian Service. 

Read more about the petition signed by more than 100 Russian cultural figures, calling for the release of three Pussy Riot punk band members.