WEBVTT 00:00:02.254 --> 00:00:05.737 By and large the current process is not about 00:00:05.737 --> 00:00:08.872 the three singers in the group Pussy Riot 00:00:08.872 --> 00:00:14.212 if that was the case then the proceedings here would be irrelevant 00:00:14.212 --> 00:00:18.949 It is the entire state system of the Russian Federation which is on trial 00:00:18.949 --> 00:00:24.499 and which, to its own detriment, takes such pleasure in inflicting cruelty on people 00:00:24.499 --> 00:00:27.309 and indifference to human respect and dignity. 00:00:27.309 --> 00:00:30.884 As bad as the very worst of Russian history. 00:00:30.884 --> 00:00:35.064 The simulation of a court process comes close to the standards of Stalin's "troikas" [extrajudicial panels] 00:00:35.064 --> 00:00:37.549 to my deep regret. 00:00:37.549 --> 00:00:40.056 Thus, we have our investigator, lawyer and judge. 00:00:40.056 --> 00:00:43.539 And then, what’s more, what all three of them do and say and decide 00:00:43.539 --> 00:00:49.089 is determined by a political demand for repression. 00:00:49.089 --> 00:00:51.457 Who is guilty for what happened during 00:00:51.457 --> 00:00:53.849 the performance at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour 00:00:53.849 --> 00:00:56.659 and the trial which followed our concert? 00:00:56.659 --> 00:00:59.584 The authoritarian political system is guilty. 00:00:59.584 --> 00:01:03.299 That which Pussy Riot does, is opposition art 00:01:03.299 --> 00:01:07.502 or even politics, taking on forms developed by art. 00:01:07.502 --> 00:01:10.265 In any case it is the kind of civil activity 00:01:10.265 --> 00:01:14.190 under conditions of pressure from a corporate state system 00:01:14.190 --> 00:01:16.465 on basic human rights 00:01:16.465 --> 00:01:19.252 on civil and political freedoms. 00:01:19.252 --> 00:01:24.731 Many people, who have been methodically robbed of their freedoms 00:01:24.731 --> 00:01:29.724 are now rebelling. 00:01:29.724 --> 00:01:32.464 We are looking for sincerity and simplicity 00:01:32.464 --> 00:01:35.227 and we found both in our punk performances. 00:01:35.227 --> 00:01:46.210 Passion, sincerity, and naivety are above hypocrisy, deceit, feigned modesty, and hiding your crime. 00:01:46.210 --> 00:01:50.784 The country's top brass stand in cathedral with righteous faces 00:01:50.784 --> 00:01:54.174 but they are sly, their sins are far greater than ours. 00:01:54.174 --> 00:01:57.866 We do our political punk concerts because 00:01:57.866 --> 00:01:59.933 the Russian state system is ruled by such 00:01:59.933 --> 00:02:02.626 stiffness, opacity, and class 00:02:02.626 --> 00:02:07.387 and policies are subject only to narrow corporate interests 00:02:07.387 --> 00:02:11.496 so much so that Russian air makes us ill. 00:02:11.496 --> 00:02:13.958 Against our wishes, we are made to act and live 00:02:13.958 --> 00:02:18.068 with the politically coercive and violent techniques 00:02:18.068 --> 00:02:22.224 to control social processes. 00:02:22.224 --> 00:02:25.452 The situation, when the most important political institutions 00:02:25.452 --> 00:02:28.308 are the state's disciplinary structures, 00:02:28.308 --> 00:02:31.721 law enforcement, the army, the police, the security services 00:02:31.721 --> 00:02:35.065 and the corresponding means for achieving political stability involve 00:02:35.065 --> 00:02:41.172 prisons, preventive detention, mechanisms of strict control over the behaviour of citizens. 00:02:41.172 --> 00:02:46.582 We also do not like the forced passivity of most of the civilian population 00:02:46.582 --> 00:02:50.669 and also the complete domination of executive branch 00:02:50.669 --> 00:02:53.014 over the legislature and judiciary. 00:02:53.014 --> 00:02:55.429 In addition, we are sincerely annoyed 00:02:55.429 --> 00:02:59.213 at the scandalously low level of political culture, built on fear 00:02:59.213 --> 00:03:02.789 a level which consciously supports the state system and its cronies. 00:03:02.789 --> 00:03:05.204 Just look at what Patriarch Kirill says 00:03:05.204 --> 00:03:07.387 that Orthodox believers do not attend the demonstrations. 00:03:07.387 --> 00:03:11.079 We are annoyed by the scandalous weakness 00:03:11.079 --> 00:03:14.306 of community connections within society. 00:03:14.306 --> 00:03:17.743 We do not like the state's manipulation of public opinion 00:03:17.743 --> 00:03:23.014 easily carried out thanks to tight control over most media 00:03:23.014 --> 00:03:26.567 by state agencies, and for example, 00:03:26.567 --> 00:03:32.534 the exceptionally arrogant and base distortion of facts and words in the campaign against Pussy Riot, 00:03:32.534 --> 00:03:35.344 launched in almost all Russian media, 00:03:35.344 --> 00:03:40.545 except for independent ones, a rarity in this political system. 00:03:40.545 --> 00:03:44.980 Nonetheless I now state that 00:03:44.980 --> 00:03:51.296 even though this situation is authoritarian 00:03:51.296 --> 00:03:54.988 and even though the political system is authoritarian 00:03:54.988 --> 00:04:02.418 I still see the collapse of this political system 00:04:02.418 --> 00:04:06.575 in its response to the three members of Pussy Riot 00:04:06.575 --> 00:04:10.220 because that which the system depends on, was wrong. 00:04:10.220 --> 00:04:17.047 Unfortunately for the system, Russia as a whole does not condemn us 00:04:17.047 --> 00:04:20.669 and with every day more and more people believe us and believe in us 00:04:20.669 --> 00:04:24.106 and think we should be free rather than behind bars. 00:04:24.106 --> 00:04:26.567 I can see this from people I meet. 00:04:26.567 --> 00:04:34.531 I meet people who represent the system, who work for the relevant agencies. 00:04:34.531 --> 00:04:42.519 And every day there are more and more people who wish us well 00:04:42.519 --> 00:04:46.768 who hope for our success and especially for our release 00:04:46.768 --> 00:04:49.973 who say our political act was justified 00:04:49.973 --> 00:04:52.898 More and more, people tell us 00:04:52.898 --> 00:04:58.425 At first, we weren't sure you could have done this 00:04:58.425 --> 00:05:03.487 but every day there are more and more people who say 00:05:03.487 --> 00:05:10.197 Time is proving to us that your political gesture was correct. 00:05:10.197 --> 00:05:21.459 You have exposed the cancer in this political system and dealt a blow to a nest of vipers, which then turned on you. 00:05:21.459 --> 00:05:26.869 These people are trying to make life easier for us in whatever way they can 00:05:26.869 --> 00:05:29.261 and we are very grateful to them for that 00:05:29.261 --> 00:05:32.721 We are grateful to all those who, free themselves, speak out in our support. 00:05:32.721 --> 00:05:35.066 There are a vast number, I know. 00:05:35.066 --> 00:05:39.361 I know that a huge number of Orthodox people are standing up for us. 00:05:39.361 --> 00:05:43.564 They are praying for us outside the courtroom 00:05:43.564 --> 00:05:48.348 for the members of Pussy Riot who are incarcerated. 00:05:48.348 --> 00:05:53.758 We’ve seen the booklets Orthodox people are handing out 00:05:53.758 --> 00:05:58.309 with prayers for those in prison 00:05:58.309 --> 00:06:05.809 This shows that there isn’t a unified social group of Orthodox believers 00:06:05.809 --> 00:06:09.338 as the prosecution is claiming. 00:06:09.338 --> 00:06:11.335 No such thing exists. 00:06:11.335 --> 00:06:17.024 More and more believers are starting to defend Pussy Riot. 00:06:17.024 --> 00:06:24.896 They don’t think what we did deserves even five months in detention 00:06:24.896 --> 00:06:31.746 much less the three years in prison the prosecutor would like. 00:06:31.746 --> 00:06:34.927 And every day, more and more people realize 00:06:34.927 --> 00:06:38.990 that if this political system has ganged up to this extent against three girls 00:06:38.990 --> 00:06:43.193 for a 30-second performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour 00:06:43.193 --> 00:06:47.466 it means the system is afraid of the truth 00:06:47.466 --> 00:06:51.529 and afraid of our sincerity and directness 00:06:51.529 --> 00:06:55.198 We haven’t dissembled, not for a second 00:06:55.198 --> 00:06:58.820 not for a minute during this trial 00:06:58.820 --> 00:07:02.605 but the other side is dissembling too much and people can sense it. 00:07:02.605 --> 00:07:05.066 People can sense the truth. 00:07:05.066 --> 00:07:09.896 Truth really does have some kind of ontological, existential superiority over lies 00:07:09.896 --> 00:07:14.819 and this is written in the Bible, in the Old Testament in particular. 00:07:14.819 --> 00:07:22.133 In the end, the ways of truth always triumph over the ways of wickedness, guile and lies. 00:07:22.133 --> 00:07:25.941 And with each day that passes, 00:07:25.941 --> 00:07:34.068 the ways of truth are more and more triumphant 00:07:34.068 --> 00:07:36.506 even though we are still behind bars 00:07:36.506 --> 00:07:38.666 and are likely to be here a lot longer yet. 00:07:38.666 --> 00:07:41.452 Madonna performed yesterday [7 August]. 00:07:41.452 --> 00:07:45.585 She appeared with Pussy Riot written on her back. 00:07:45.585 --> 00:07:48.627 More and more people can see 00:07:48.627 --> 00:07:51.251 that we are being held here unlawfully and on a completely false charge 00:07:51.251 --> 00:07:53.642 I’m overwhelmed by this 00:07:53.642 --> 00:08:01.026 I am overwhelmed that truth really does triumph over lies 00:08:01.026 --> 00:08:04.626 even though physically we are here in a cage. 00:08:04.626 --> 00:08:07.064 We are freer than the people sitting opposite us 00:08:07.064 --> 00:08:09.989 for the prosecution because we can say everything we like 00:08:09.989 --> 00:08:16.050 and we do, but those people sitting there say only what political censorship allows them to say. 00:08:16.050 --> 00:08:21.855 They can’t speak words like “punk prayer” or "Virgin Mary, Banish Putin!” 00:08:21.855 --> 00:08:29.424 They can’t say the lines from our punk prayer that have to do with the political system. 00:08:29.424 --> 00:08:34.301 Perhaps they think it wouldn’t be a bad thing to send us to jail 00:08:34.301 --> 00:08:36.808 because we are rising up against Putin and his system as well 00:08:36.808 --> 00:08:39.850 but they can’t say so because that’s not allowed either. 00:08:39.850 --> 00:08:43.147 Their mouths are sewn shut. Unfortunately, they are mere puppets. 00:08:43.147 --> 00:08:50.067 I hope they realize this and also take the road to freedom, truth and sincerity 00:08:50.067 --> 00:08:59.448 because these are superior to stasis, contrived decency and hypocrisy. 00:08:59.448 --> 00:09:06.414 Stasis and the search for truth are always in opposition to one another 00:09:06.414 --> 00:09:09.200 and in this case, at this trial, 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:12.056 we can see people who are trying to find the truth 00:09:12.056 --> 00:09:16.816 and people who are trying to enslave those who want to find the truth. 00:09:16.816 --> 00:09:22.250 Humans are beings who always make mistakes. 00:09:22.250 --> 00:09:24.990 They are not perfect. 00:09:24.990 --> 00:09:28.078 They strive for wisdom but never actually have it. 00:09:28.078 --> 00:09:31.097 That’s precisely why philosophy came into being, 00:09:31.097 --> 00:09:35.044 precisely because philosophers are people who love wisdom and strive for it, 00:09:35.044 --> 00:09:37.947 but never actually possesses it 00:09:37.947 --> 00:09:42.660 and it is what drives them to act and to think 00:09:42.660 --> 00:09:45.145 and, ultimately, to live the way they do. 00:09:45.145 --> 00:09:49.301 This is what made us go into the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, 00:09:49.301 --> 00:10:01.166 and I think that Christianity, as I’ve understood it from studying the Old and New Testaments, 00:10:01.166 --> 00:10:07.297 supports the search for truth and a constant overcoming of the self, 00:10:07.297 --> 00:10:11.708 overcoming what you used to be. 00:10:11.708 --> 00:10:17.328 Christ didn’t associate with prostitutes for nothing. 00:10:17.328 --> 00:10:23.504 He said, ‘I help those who have gone astray and forgive them’ 00:10:23.504 --> 00:10:29.611 but for some reason I can’t see any of that at our trial, 00:10:29.611 --> 00:10:32.258 which is taking place under the banner of Christianity. 00:10:32.258 --> 00:10:38.063 I think the prosecutor is defying Christianity. 00:10:38.063 --> 00:10:43.613 The lawyer wants nothing to do with the injured parties. 00:10:43.613 --> 00:10:47.142 Here’s how I understand this: 00:10:47.142 --> 00:10:50.137 Two days ago, Lawyer Taratukhin made a speech 00:10:50.137 --> 00:11:00.447 in which he wanted everyone to understand that he had no sympathy with the people he is representing. 00:11:00.447 --> 00:11:05.068 This means he’s not ethically comfortable representing 00:11:05.068 --> 00:11:09.247 people who want to send the three members of Pussy Riot to jail. 00:11:09.247 --> 00:11:12.011 Why they want to do this, I don’t know. 00:11:12.011 --> 00:11:14.425 Perhaps it is their right. 00:11:14.425 --> 00:11:19.464 The lawyer was embarrassed 00:11:19.464 --> 00:11:24.944 the shouts of “Shame! Executioners!” had got to him 00:11:24.944 --> 00:11:34.836 which goes to show that truth and goodness always triumph over lies and evil. 00:11:34.836 --> 00:11:44.983 I think some higher powers are guiding the speeches of the lawyers for the other side 00:11:44.983 --> 00:11:48.954 when, time after time, they make mistakes in what they say 00:11:48.954 --> 00:11:52.994 and call us the “injured parties”. 00:11:52.994 --> 00:11:56.128 Almost all the lawyers are doing it, 00:11:56.128 --> 00:11:59.101 including Lawyer Pavlova who is very negatively disposed towards us. 00:11:59.101 --> 00:12:01.980 Nevertheless, some higher powers are causing her 00:12:01.980 --> 00:12:07.947 to say "the injured parties" about us rather than the people she’s defending, us. 00:12:07.947 --> 00:12:10.432 I wouldn’t give people labels. 00:12:10.432 --> 00:12:13.427 I don’t think there are winners or losers here, 00:12:13.427 --> 00:12:15.842 injured parties or accused. 00:12:15.842 --> 00:12:17.932 We just need to make contact, 00:12:17.932 --> 00:12:20.208 to establish a dialogue and a joint search for truth, 00:12:20.208 --> 00:12:22.739 to seek wisdom together, 00:12:22.739 --> 00:12:24.828 to be philosophers together, 00:12:24.828 --> 00:12:30.076 rather than stigmatizing and labelling people. 00:12:30.076 --> 00:12:33.141 This is one of the worst things people can do 00:12:33.141 --> 00:12:40.177 and Christ condemned it. 00:12:40.177 --> 00:12:47.607 We have been subjected to abuse during this trial. 00:12:47.607 --> 00:12:52.251 Who would have thought that a person and the state system he controls 00:12:52.251 --> 00:12:56.361 would be repeatedly capable of entirely wanton evil? 00:12:56.361 --> 00:13:01.864 Who would have thought that history and particularly Stalin’s Great Terror 00:13:01.864 --> 00:13:05.208 not so very long ago, would not be taught at all? 00:13:05.208 --> 00:13:09.248 It makes you want to weep to see how the methods of the medieval inquisition are brought out 00:13:09.248 --> 00:13:15.332 by the law-enforcement and judicial system of the Russian Federation, which is our country. 00:13:15.332 --> 00:13:18.583 Since the time of our arrest, however, we are no longer able to weep. 00:13:18.583 --> 00:13:20.579 We’ve forgotten how to cry. 00:13:20.579 --> 00:13:23.923 At our punk concerts we used to shout as best we could 00:13:23.923 --> 00:13:32.236 about the iniquities of the authorities and now we’ve been robbed of our voice. 00:13:32.236 --> 00:13:37.344 This whole trial refuses to hear us 00:13:37.344 --> 00:13:39.527 and I mean hear us 00:13:39.527 --> 00:13:43.405 which involves understanding and, moreover, thinking. 00:13:43.405 --> 00:13:46.470 I think every individual wants to attain wisdom, to be a philosopher 00:13:46.470 --> 00:13:49.186 not just people who happen to have studied philosophy. 00:13:49.186 --> 00:13:55.967 That’s nothing. 00:13:55.967 --> 00:13:58.382 Formal education is nothing in itself 00:13:58.382 --> 00:14:03.931 and Lawyer Pavlova is constantly accusing us of not being sufficiently well-educated. 00:14:03.931 --> 00:14:06.718 I think though that the most important thing 00:14:06.718 --> 00:14:11.269 is the desire to know and to understand, 00:14:11.269 --> 00:14:14.705 and that’s something people can do for themselves 00:14:14.705 --> 00:14:17.306 outside of educational establishments, 00:14:17.306 --> 00:14:21.323 and the trappings of academic degrees don’t mean anything in this instance. 00:14:21.323 --> 00:14:28.405 Someone can have a vast fund of knowledge 00:14:28.405 --> 00:14:32.538 and for all that not be human. 00:14:32.538 --> 00:14:39.434 Pythagoras said: ‘the learning of many things does not teach understanding’. 00:14:39.434 --> 00:14:43.986 Unfortunately, that’s something we are forced to observe here. 00:14:43.986 --> 00:14:49.280 It’s just a stage setting and bits of the natural world, 00:14:49.280 --> 00:14:51.369 bodies brought into the courtroom. 00:14:51.369 --> 00:14:54.156 If, after many days of asking, talking and doing battle 00:14:54.156 --> 00:14:56.640 our petitions are examined, they are inevitably rejected. 00:14:56.640 --> 00:14:59.195 The court, on the other hand 00:14:59.195 --> 00:15:01.331 unfortunately for us and for our country 00:15:01.331 --> 00:15:05.650 listens to the prosecutor who repeatedly distorts our comments and statements with impunity 00:15:05.650 --> 00:15:07.949 in a bid to neutralize them. 00:15:07.949 --> 00:15:12.569 There is no attempt to conceal this breach in an adversarial system. 00:15:12.569 --> 00:15:14.984 It even appears to be for show. 00:15:14.984 --> 00:15:17.144 On 30th July, the first day of the trial, 00:15:17.144 --> 00:15:20.500 we presented our response to the accusations. 00:15:20.500 --> 00:15:23.642 The document we wrote was read by defence lawyer Volkov 00:15:23.642 --> 00:15:28.333 because the court categorically refused to let the defendants speak. 00:15:28.333 --> 00:15:33.846 It was the first time in five months of imprisonment that we could communicate 00:15:33.846 --> 00:15:38.192 Prior to that we were in prison, in confinement. 00:15:38.192 --> 00:15:41.276 We can’t do anything there. 00:15:41.276 --> 00:15:44.040 We can’t make statements. We can’t make films. 00:15:44.040 --> 00:15:46.036 We don’t have the internet in there. 00:15:46.036 --> 00:15:49.171 We can’t even give our lawyer a bit of paper because that’s banned too. 00:15:49.171 --> 00:15:52.580 Our first chance to speak came on 30th July. 00:15:52.580 --> 00:15:55.766 We called for contact and dialogue 00:15:55.766 --> 00:15:58.088 rather than conflict and opposition. 00:15:58.088 --> 00:16:00.247 We reached out a hand to those 00:16:00.247 --> 00:16:02.407 who, for some reason, assume we are their enemies. 00:16:02.407 --> 00:16:04.845 In response they laughed at us 00:16:04.845 --> 00:16:07.236 and spat in our outstretched hands. 00:16:07.236 --> 00:16:09.651 You’re disingenuous, they told us. 00:16:09.651 --> 00:16:13.157 But they needn’t have bothered. 00:16:13.157 --> 00:16:16.083 Don’t judge others by your own standards. 00:16:16.083 --> 00:16:19.589 We were always sincere in what we said, 00:16:19.589 --> 00:16:22.144 saying exactly what we thought, 00:16:22.144 --> 00:16:24.535 out of childish naïvety, 00:16:24.535 --> 00:16:27.159 sure, but we don’t regret anything we said, 00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:29.156 even on that day. 00:16:29.156 --> 00:16:31.826 We are reviled but we do not intend to speak evil in return. 00:16:31.826 --> 00:16:35.054 We are in desperate straits but do not despair. 00:16:35.054 --> 00:16:37.608 We are persecuted but not forsaken. 00:16:37.608 --> 00:16:39.221 It’s easy to humiliate and crush people who are open, 00:16:39.221 --> 00:16:41.311 but when I am weak, then I am strong. 00:16:41.311 --> 00:16:43.563 Listen to us rather than to Arkady Mamontov talking about us. 00:16:43.563 --> 00:16:46.001 Don’t twist and distort everything we say. 00:16:46.001 --> 00:16:48.184 Let us enter into dialogue and contact with the country, 00:16:48.184 --> 00:16:51.806 which is ours too, not just Putin’s and the Patriarch’s. 00:16:51.806 --> 00:16:58.494 Like Solzhenitsyn, I believe that in the end, words will crush concrete. 00:16:58.494 --> 00:17:05.785 Solzhenitsyn wrote, “the word is more sincere than concrete, so words are not trifles. 00:17:05.785 --> 00:17:11.567 Once noble people mobilize, their words will crush concrete.” 00:17:11.567 --> 00:17:14.794 Katya, Masha and I are in jail 00:17:14.794 --> 00:17:19.229 but I don’t consider that we’ve been defeated. 00:17:19.229 --> 00:17:21.505 Just as the dissidents weren’t defeated. 00:17:21.505 --> 00:17:24.570 When they disappeared into psychiatric hospitals and prisons, 00:17:24.570 --> 00:17:28.982 they passed judgement on the country. 00:17:28.982 --> 00:17:32.836 The era’s art of creating an image knew no winners or losers. 00:17:32.836 --> 00:17:38.850 The Oberiu poets remained artists to the very end, 00:17:38.850 --> 00:17:43.540 something impossible to explain or understand 00:17:43.540 --> 00:17:48.161 since they were purged in 1937. 00:17:48.161 --> 00:17:53.827 Vvedensky wrote: "We like what can’t be understood, What can’t be explained is our friend." 00:17:53.827 --> 00:18:00.305 According to the official report, Aleksandr Vvedensky died on 20 December 1941. 00:18:00.305 --> 00:18:02.813 We don’t know the cause, 00:18:02.813 --> 00:18:05.762 whether it was dysentery in the train after his arrest 00:18:05.762 --> 00:18:08.061 or a bullet from a guard. 00:18:08.061 --> 00:18:10.568 It was somewhere on the railway line between Voronezh and Kazan. 00:18:10.568 --> 00:18:13.587 Pussy Riot are Vvedensky’s disciples and his heirs. 00:18:13.587 --> 00:18:16.257 His principle of ‘bad rhythm’ is our own. 00:18:16.257 --> 00:18:19.531 He wrote: "It happens that two rhythms will come into your head," 00:18:19.531 --> 00:18:21.923 a good one and a bad one and I choose the bad one. 00:18:21.923 --> 00:18:24.756 It will be the right one. 00:18:24.756 --> 00:18:27.055 What can’t be explained is our friend. 00:18:27.055 --> 00:18:29.864 The elitist, sophisticated occupations of the Oberiu poets, 00:18:29.864 --> 00:18:32.163 their search for meaning on the edge of sense 00:18:32.163 --> 00:18:34.880 was ultimately realized at the cost of their lives, 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:39.222 swept away in the senseless Great Terror 00:18:39.222 --> 00:18:41.846 something impossible to explain. 00:18:41.846 --> 00:18:45.515 At the cost of their own lives 00:18:45.515 --> 00:18:48.696 the Oberiu poets unintentionally demonstrated 00:18:48.696 --> 00:18:50.484 that the feeling of meaninglessness and analogy, 00:18:50.484 --> 00:18:52.922 like a pain in the backside, was correct, 00:18:52.922 --> 00:18:55.267 but at the same time led art into the realm of history. 00:18:55.267 --> 00:18:57.310 The cost of taking part in creating history 00:18:57.310 --> 00:18:59.864 is always staggeringly high for people. 00:18:59.864 --> 00:19:05.995 But that taking part is the very spice of human life. 00:19:05.995 --> 00:19:08.874 Being poor while bestowing riches on many, 00:19:08.874 --> 00:19:11.382 having nothing but possessing everything. 00:19:11.382 --> 00:19:14.121 It is believed that the OBERIU dissidents are dead, 00:19:14.121 --> 00:19:16.699 but they live on. 00:19:16.699 --> 00:19:19.230 They are persecuted but they do not die. 00:19:19.230 --> 00:19:23.363 Do you remember why the young Dostoyevsky was given the death sentence? 00:19:23.363 --> 00:19:27.659 All he had done was to spend all his time with Socialists 00:19:27.659 --> 00:19:31.049 and at the Friday meetings of a friendly circle of free thinkers at Petrushevsky’s 00:19:31.049 --> 00:19:36.142 he became acquainted with Charles Fourier and George Sand. 00:19:36.142 --> 00:19:40.778 At one of the last meetings, he read out Gogol’s letter to Belinsky, 00:19:40.778 --> 00:19:43.773 which was packed, according to the court, 00:19:43.773 --> 00:19:51.691 and I note, with childish expressions against the Orthodox Church and the supreme authorities. 00:19:51.691 --> 00:19:57.264 After all his preparations for the death penalty 00:19:57.264 --> 00:20:01.560 and ten dreadful, as he put it, "impossibly frightening minutes waiting to die" 00:20:01.560 --> 00:20:03.998 the announcement came that his sentence had been commuted 00:20:03.998 --> 00:20:09.037 to four years hard labour followed by military service. 00:20:09.037 --> 00:20:12.357 Socrates was accused of corrupting youth 00:20:12.357 --> 00:20:14.517 through his philosophical discourses 00:20:14.517 --> 00:20:17.535 and of not recognizing the gods of Athens. 00:20:17.535 --> 00:20:21.250 Socrates had a connection to a divine inner voice 00:20:21.250 --> 00:20:24.733 and was by no means a theomachist, 00:20:24.733 --> 00:20:27.195 something he often said himself. 00:20:27.195 --> 00:20:30.283 What did that matter, however, when he had angered the city 00:20:30.283 --> 00:20:35.585 with his critical, dialectical and unprejudiced thinking? 00:20:35.585 --> 00:20:43.820 Socrates was sentenced to death and, refusing to run away 00:20:43.820 --> 00:20:46.444 although he was given that option, 00:20:46.444 --> 00:20:53.328 he drank down a cup of poison in cold blood, hemlock. 00:20:53.328 --> 00:20:56.127 Have you forgotten the circumstances under which 00:20:56.127 --> 00:21:02.721 Stephen, follower of the Apostles, ended his earthly life? 00:21:02.721 --> 00:21:05.554 "Then they secretly induced men to say: 00:21:05.554 --> 00:21:08.573 'We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.' 00:21:08.573 --> 00:21:11.266 And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, 00:21:11.266 --> 00:21:15.771 and they came upon him and dragged him away, and brought him before the Council. 00:21:15.771 --> 00:21:18.232 And they put forward false witnesses who said 00:21:18.232 --> 00:21:21.645 'This man incessantly speaks against this holy place, and the Law.' " 00:21:21.645 --> 00:21:25.918 He was found guilty and stoned to death. 00:21:25.918 --> 00:21:29.331 And I hope everyone remembers what the Jews said to Jesus: 00:21:29.331 --> 00:21:33.534 We're stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy. 00:21:33.534 --> 00:21:37.412 And finally it would be well worth remembering this description of Christ: 00:21:37.412 --> 00:21:42.334 He is possessed of a demon and out of his mind. 00:21:42.334 --> 00:21:49.974 I believe that if leaders, tsars, elders, presidents and prime ministers, the people and the judges 00:21:49.974 --> 00:21:53.991 really understood what "I desire mercy not sacrifice" meant, 00:21:53.991 --> 00:21:56.893 they would not condemn the innocent. 00:21:56.893 --> 00:22:02.280 Our leaders are currently in a hurry only to condemn 00:22:02.280 --> 00:22:05.020 and not at all to show mercy. 00:22:05.020 --> 00:22:08.805 Incidentally, we thank Dmitry Medvedev for his latest wonderful aphorism. 00:22:08.805 --> 00:22:13.565 If Medvedev gave his presidency the slogan: "Freedom is better than non-freedom" 00:22:13.565 --> 00:22:16.305 then, thanks to Medvedev’s felicitous saying, 00:22:16.305 --> 00:22:21.808 Putin’s third term has a good chance of being known by a new aphorism: 00:22:21.808 --> 00:22:27.451 Prison is better than stoning 00:22:27.451 --> 00:22:30.795 I would like you to think carefully 00:22:30.795 --> 00:22:34.719 about the following reflection by Montaigne 00:22:34.719 --> 00:22:37.273 from his Essays written in the 16th century. 00:22:37.273 --> 00:22:43.798 He wrote: "You are holding your opinions in too high a regard if you burn people alive for them." 00:22:43.798 --> 00:22:47.397 Is it worth accusing people and putting them in jail 00:22:47.397 --> 00:22:52.110 on the basis of totally unfounded conjectures by the prosecution? 00:22:52.110 --> 00:22:55.338 Since in actual fact we never were, 00:22:55.338 --> 00:22:59.471 and are not, motivated by religious hatred and hostility, 00:22:59.471 --> 00:23:01.654 there is nothing left for our accusers 00:23:01.654 --> 00:23:04.045 other than to draw on the aid of false witnesses. 00:23:04.045 --> 00:23:06.484 One of them, Motilda Ivashchenko, 00:23:06.484 --> 00:23:08.968 was ashamed and didn’t show up in court. 00:23:08.968 --> 00:23:11.290 That left the false witness of the expert examination 00:23:11.290 --> 00:23:13.426 by [Vsevolod] Troitsky, [Igor] Ponkin and Mrs [Vera] Abramenkova. 00:23:13.426 --> 00:23:16.050 And there is no evidence of any hatred or enmity on our part 00:23:16.050 --> 00:23:18.535 other than this expert examination. 00:23:18.535 --> 00:23:21.135 For this reason, if it is honourable and just, 00:23:21.135 --> 00:23:24.572 the court must rule the evidence inadmissible 00:23:24.572 --> 00:23:27.103 because it is not a strictly scientific or objective text 00:23:27.103 --> 00:23:30.493 but a filthy, lying bit of paper 00:23:30.493 --> 00:23:34.974 from the medieval days of the inquisition. 00:23:34.974 --> 00:23:39.108 There is no other evidence that remotely hints at a motive. 00:23:39.108 --> 00:23:42.614 The prosecution is reluctant to produce excerpts from the text of Pussy Riot interviews 00:23:42.614 --> 00:23:48.744 because they are primary evidence of this lack of motive. 00:23:48.744 --> 00:23:52.622 For the umpteenth time, I will quote this excerpt. 00:23:52.622 --> 00:23:57.010 I think it’s important. It was from an interview with Russky Reporter 00:23:57.010 --> 00:24:01.213 given the day after the concert at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour 00:24:01.213 --> 00:24:05.207 Our attitude toward religion, and toward Orthodoxy in particular 00:24:05.207 --> 00:24:08.225 is one of respect, and for this very reason we are distressed 00:24:08.225 --> 00:24:10.896 that the great and luminous Christian philosophy is being used so shabbily. 00:24:10.896 --> 00:24:16.376 We are very angry that something beautiful is being spoiled. 00:24:16.376 --> 00:24:23.597 It still makes us angry and we find it very painful to watch. 00:24:23.597 --> 00:24:29.541 The lack on our part of any show of hatred or enmity 00:24:29.541 --> 00:24:33.814 has been attested by all the witnesses examined by the defence. 00:24:33.814 --> 00:24:36.995 And by the evidence of our characters. 00:24:36.995 --> 00:24:39.758 In addition to all the other character statements, 00:24:39.758 --> 00:24:44.495 I’d like you to consider the findings of the psychiatric and psychological tests 00:24:44.495 --> 00:24:46.724 which the investigator ordered me to undergo in detention. 00:24:46.724 --> 00:24:48.814 The expert’s findings were as follows: 00:24:48.814 --> 00:24:51.484 the values to which I am committed in my life are 00:24:51.484 --> 00:24:56.944 justice, mutual respect, humanity, equality and freedom. 00:24:56.944 --> 00:25:03.373 That’s what the expert said, someone who doesn’t know me 00:25:03.373 --> 00:25:06.227 and Investigator Ranchenko would probably 00:25:06.227 --> 00:25:10.755 have very much liked him to write something different. 00:25:10.755 --> 00:25:18.442 It would appear, however, that there are more people who live and value the truth 00:25:18.442 --> 00:25:23.224 and the Bible’s right about that. 00:25:23.224 --> 00:25:30.701 Finally, I’d like to quote a Pussy Riot song 00:25:30.701 --> 00:25:33.789 because, strange as it may seem 00:25:33.789 --> 00:25:36.482 all our songs have turned out to be prophetic 00:25:36.482 --> 00:25:38.758 including the one that says: 00:25:38.758 --> 00:25:43.959 The KGB chief, their number one saint, will escort protestors off to jail – that’s us. 00:25:43.959 --> 00:25:48.975 What I’d like to quote now, however, is the next line: 00:25:48.975 --> 00:25:56.528 Open the doors, off with the shoulder-straps, join us in a taste of freedom. 00:25:56.528 --> 00:25:59.454 That's it. 00:25:59.454 --> 99:59:59.999 [Applause]