Volgograd hosts picket in support of "Pussy Riot"

Today, in Volgograd, a picket was held in support of the punk band "Pussy Riot". According to the organizers, it was directed against "joining of church and state." The event was attended by four persons.

The picket in Volgograd has been sanctioned with the authorities. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Boris Stikhin, the event organizer, the activist of the Volgograd Regional Branch of the International Union of Anarchists.

Apart from him, the picket was attended by Nikolai Chernyavsky, a representative of the "Left-Wing Front", Vladimir Vasilchenko, Chairman of the organization of defrauded investors of the Savings Bank in Volgograd, and Galina Dorozhnova, a civil activist.

The picketers were standing with posters reading: "ROC (Russian Orthodox Church) get out of politics!", "When church is connected with state, then Inquisition is born!", the portrait of the young women from the punk band bore the inscription "Give them Nobel Prize-2013".

Boris Stikhin has emphasized that the picket was directed against "joining the church and the state." "It was planned that on October 1, the Moscow City Court will consider an appeal, filed by the lawyers of the 'Pussy Riot'," said Boris Stikhin. He continued: "The court postponed the consideration of the appeal to October 10; however, we decided not to postpone our event."

According to Boris Stikhin, "believers started to talk about their hurt feelings after presenters of the central TV Channels reported that the feelings of believers had been offended." According to Nikolai Chernyavsky, the picketers came to oppose "obscurantism and playing off people against other people by religious approach."

Police officers, the number of whom exceeded the number of the picketers, observed the protest action.

People, who passed by, curiously looked at the posters and spoke of the picketers mostly negatively. "These are the ones, who danced at the church?" asked an elderly woman, who passed by and looked at the poster with the picture of the "Pussy Riot". The picketers have explained that "the young women were against Putin." "You should not free them from blame," said indignantly another elderly woman.

"If the women are not caught, 90 percent of the population would consider that their action is adequate," commented on the situation one of the young people, who watched the action and who preferred to remain anonymous.

The event took place without incidents.