Showing posts with label Russian Federation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russian Federation. Show all posts
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A Cossack horsewhips one of the members of the band Pussy Riot. From the video.[/caption]
This morning The Province newspaper had a story straight out of the history books; apparently Cossack militia (also known as "thugs") attacked the anti-Putin agit-punk group Pussy Riot with horsewhips on Wednesday in Sochi, Russia, for trying to play their music in public under a sign advertising the Sochi Olympics.
Cossacks? Horsewhips? Wow! Russia really does still have one foot firmly planted in the 18th Century. But their other foot is on the gas pedal of a brand new Beemer and they also have the latest model iPhones and high-speed Internet.
So hours before I saw The Province I had already seen what I took to be smartphone footage of the attack in the music video Pussy Riot put out on the Internet this morning for their very excellent song "Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland."
Singer Madonna, a vocal supporter of Pussy Riot, posted a still of a Cossack swinging his whip at one of the band members to accompany her amazed tweet this morning:
Madonna also included a link to an International Olympic Committee spokesperson describing the pictures and the video as "very unsettling."
I agree with the IOC flack that the pictures are unsettling and with Madonna about Pussy Riot being fearless. And while I do not love the Motherland I do really like the song.
A Cossack horsewhips one of the members of the band Pussy Riot. From the video.[/caption]This morning The Province newspaper had a story straight out of the history books; apparently Cossack militia (also known as "thugs") attacked the anti-Putin agit-punk group Pussy Riot with horsewhips on Wednesday in Sochi, Russia, for trying to play their music in public under a sign advertising the Sochi Olympics.
Cossacks? Horsewhips? Wow! Russia really does still have one foot firmly planted in the 18th Century. But their other foot is on the gas pedal of a brand new Beemer and they also have the latest model iPhones and high-speed Internet.
So hours before I saw The Province I had already seen what I took to be smartphone footage of the attack in the music video Pussy Riot put out on the Internet this morning for their very excellent song "Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland."
Singer Madonna, a vocal supporter of Pussy Riot, posted a still of a Cossack swinging his whip at one of the band members to accompany her amazed tweet this morning:
"Are you kidding me? Are the police in Russia actually whipping Pussy Riot for making music on the streets? Is this the dark ages? GOD bless P.R. They are fearless!" she wrote on Twitter.
Madonna also included a link to an International Olympic Committee spokesperson describing the pictures and the video as "very unsettling."
I agree with the IOC flack that the pictures are unsettling and with Madonna about Pussy Riot being fearless. And while I do not love the Motherland I do really like the song.
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If this is wrong, I don't want to be right! Click the image to enlarge it.
[/caption]
The very widely reported public kiss between two female Russian athletes, Kseniya Ryzhova and Tatyana Firova, on the winners' podium at Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, oer the weekend, was in direct defiance of a new Russian anti-gay law.
July 2, 2013, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill banning the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors," It's important to point out the law does not apparently make homosexuality itself illegal, it makes public displays of homosexuality illegal. I say "apparently," because, in English translation, it is a very vaguely-worded law, but basically "propaganda" = "public display."
If this is wrong, I don't want to be right! Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]
The very widely reported public kiss between two female Russian athletes, Kseniya Ryzhova and Tatyana Firova, on the winners' podium at Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, oer the weekend, was in direct defiance of a new Russian anti-gay law.
July 2, 2013, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill banning the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors," It's important to point out the law does not apparently make homosexuality itself illegal, it makes public displays of homosexuality illegal. I say "apparently," because, in English translation, it is a very vaguely-worded law, but basically "propaganda" = "public display."
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