"Blasphemy?" - Russia's Pussy Riot Go On Hunger Strike After Court Ruling.

"Blasphemy?" - Russia's Pussy Riot Go On Hunger Strike After Court Ruling.(RN).Members of the all-female Russian punk group Pussy Riot - who face up to seven years behind bars over an anti-Putin protest - went on hunger strike on Wednesday after what their legal team said was a court ruling reminiscent of Stalin-era repression. “I am declaring a hunger strike, because this is unlawful,” suspect Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, told a packed Moscow courtroom after a judge had ruled to drastically reduce the time for the defense team to study case materials. The ruling obliges the defense to finish their study of the materials by July 9. Lawyers had asked to be given until September 1. Suspects Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, were detained in March after five masked members of Pussy Riot performed a song in Moscow’s largest cathedral against what they said was church support for Vladimir Putin’s presidential election campaign.. The song, entitled “Holy S**t,” featured the lyrics “Virgin Mary, drive Putin out!” and came amid unprecedented protests against the twelve-year rule of the former KGB officer. The suspects admit being part of the Pussy Riot group, but say they did not take part in the protest in the landmark Christ the Savior cathedral. Putin called the protest “unpleasant.” The group members have been charged with hooliganism as part of an organized group. Polozov told RIA Novosti during an interval in the hearing that he believed a trial would begin later this month and that the suspects could be jailed in August for “two or three years.” “If they were planning to free them, they would have released them on bail,” he said. While a number of figures within Russia’s influential Orthodox Church have expressed disquiet at the continued detention of the suspects, Church head Patriarch Kirill criticized in March those believers he said were seeking leniency for the group. And leading Church official Vsevolod Chaplin said last week that God had revealed to him his displeasure over the protest. “This sin will be punished in this life and the next,” Chaplin cited God as saying. Pussy Riot first hit the headlines in January, when they raced through a musical diatribe against Putin on a snowy Red Square, calling for “Revolt in Russia!” and chanting “Putin’s got scared” before being detained by police.Hmmmm......You don't attack the "Holy Mother Church" in Russia unpunished.Read the full story here.