August 3, 2012 19:43

St Vincent shows support for Pussy Riot

Annie Clark joins Jarvis Cocker, Kate Nash, Franz Ferdinand in support of the jailed punk musicians

Photo: Press

St Vincent's Annie Clark has joined the ranks of supporters for jailed punk band Pussy Riot.

On Twitter, the musician gave a 'shout out' to the musicians, writing:

Official shout out to Russian riot grrls, Pussy riot!
— st vincent (@st_vincent) August 3, 2012

Earlier this week, Jarvis Cocker, Johnny Marr, Alex Kapranos, Kate Nash and a host of other artists signed a letter calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to release the three detained members of the band.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich have been in detention since March of this year, after they staged a protest gig against Putin's re-election. They are currently on trial in Moscow, facing up to seven years in jail on hooliganism charges.

Writing in The Times, a roll call of artists which also included The Who's Pete Townshend, the Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant, Cornershop, Micachu and The Joy Formidable condemned the "preposterous" charges against the band.

At the start of their trial this week, the three women said they would not plead guilty, but that did not mean they were not prepared to apologise for the pain their performance in the cathedral had caused.

The three women were arrested following an impromptu Pussy Riot performance at Moscow's Christ The Saviour Cathedral, where the band sang a song called 'Holy Shit' as a protest against the Orthodox Christian church's alleged support for Putin. Although Putin regained power in the last Russian election, the verdict has drawn accusations of fraud by his competitors.

Yesterday, Putin has said that Pussy Riot should not face a severe sentence for their protest against him in Moscow. Speaking to reporters during his visit to London he said: "There is nothing good in what they did [but] I don't think they should be judged too severely," the BBC reports.

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