In comments broadcast on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin joked about the reputed benefits of group sex for the lazy as he attacked the morals of three women from the punk band Pussy Riot who were jailed by a Moscow court last month.
The women, who performed a profane, anti-Putin song in a Moscow cathedral on the eve of the Russian presidential election in February, were sentenced to two years in prison by a judge who interpreted their actions as an act of “hooliganism†intended to incite religious hatred.
During an interview with an English-language satellite news channel financed by the Russian government, Mr. Putin was asked about the harsh senten ces for the dissident musicians. He responded by seeking to draw attention to what he termed “the moral side†of the Pussy Riot saga.
Before replying at all, Mr. Putin asked the British reporter, “Could you please translate the name of the band into Russian?†When the reporter demurred, Mr. Putin continued: “Can you translate the first word into Russian? Or maybe it would sound too obscene? Yes, I think you wouldn't do it because it sounds too obscene, even in English.â€
When the journalists tried to pass the matter off as a joke - “I actually thought it was referring to a cat†- Mr. Putin again stressed the obscene nature of the group's name. “I know you understand it per fectly well, you don't need to pretend you don't get it,†he said. “It's just because these people made everyone say their band's name too many times. It's obscene â€" but forget it.â€
The Russian president then described a series of political stunts some of the jailed women were involved in before they formed Pussy Riot. Referring to acts of performance art carried out in previous years by another group of dissident artists, the collective known as Voina - “War†in Russian - Mr. Putin said:
First, in case you never heard of it, a couple of years ago one of the band's members put up three effigies in one of Moscow's big supermarkets, with a sign saying that Jews, gays and migrant workers should be driven out of Moscow. I think the authorities should have looked into their activities back then.
After that, they staged an orgy in a public place. Of course, people are allowed to do whatever they want to do, as long as it's legal, but this kind of conduct in a public place should not go unnoticed by the authorities. Then they upload of the time.
Mr. Putin's description of Voina's supermarket performance appeared to invert the meaning of stunt - the artists were trying to draw attention to what they called government policies encouraging anti-Semitism, xenophobia and homophobia, not endorsing those sentiments.
It seems unlikely that Kevin Owen, the journalist who interviewed Mr. Putin for the Kremlin's own network - known as RT or Russia Today - would have been unaware of the stunt, but just in case international viewers, who are the channel's target audience, missed the YouTube clips documenting it in 2008, the broadcaster made video of that performance available to illustrate Mr. Putin's remarks.
More ima ges of the supermarket performance, and heavily blurred images of the orgy, were included in a video report from Pravda this week, which similarly suggested that Western supporters of Pussy Riot were unaware of the true, depraved nature of the dissident art produced by the activists.
Although the members of Pussy Riot insisted at their trial that the song they performed in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior - an obscenity-laced plea for the Virgin Mary to free Russia from Vladimir Putin's grip - was a political stunt, not an attack on believers, the Russian president continued to act as if the entire point of the performance was to ridicule the Russian Orthodox Church.
Accusing the women of “causing unholy mayhem†in the cathedral, which was destroyed during the Soviet era, Mr. Putin said:
You know, Russians still have painful memories of the early years of Soviet rule, when thousands of Orthodox, Muslim, as well as clergy of other reli gions were persecuted. Soviet authorities brutally repressed the clergy. Many churches were destroyed. The attacks had a devastating effect on all our traditional religions. And so in general I think the state has to protect the feelings of believers.
Asked later in the interview about new restrictions on the Internet described as an attempt to suppress dissent by the opposition, Mr. Putin again cast himself as a defender of Russia's moral majority, insisting that his only concern was to “ban child pornography†online. “Any steps we take are in the interests of the Russian people, and our children need this kind of protection,†he said. “No one is going to use this as a tool to restrict the Internet or online freedoms, but we have the right to protect our children.â€
Reporting was contributed by Michael Schwirtz.
