Two weeks after four members of proto-punk political protest outfit Pussy Riot were arrested for interrupting the FIFA World Cup final, the group has put out a new song calling for their release and drawing attention to the plight of a young girl they say is being wrongly imprisoned by the Russian government. Anya Pavlikova, 18, was arrested in March, accused of plotting to overthrow the Russian government. Participants of the chat would meet at McDonalds and talk about boys, exams and politics. Then the chat was joined by the FSB agent, who later provided all info about its participants to the FSB and police, which caused a brutal arrest of 9 people.

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Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. Story highlights Author Naomi Wolf says recent controversies reveal biased views toward women's bodies The Pussy Riot trial and Arab Spring protests showed women stripped of autonomy Women's bodies are battlegrounds used to wage culture wars, Wolf says It's scandalous when women take ownership of their own bodies, Wolf contends. It seems as if we are in a time of unprecedented struggle over the meaning of women's bodies and sexuality. Controversy is swirling about an American University professor who breast-fed a baby in class ; topless photos of Kate Middleton have been released ; and a Time magazine cover showing a mother breast-feeding her toddler sparked even more tittering in May. It is not just the breast that is contested: Pussy Riot, the punk band, was sentenced to two years in a Russian prison after a staged performance in which they did high kicks that showed too much of their bodies.
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Artists and musicians around the world have called for their release. Now, nearly four months after three women were arrested for performing a protest anthem inside Moscow's most important Orthodox church, Christ the Saviour cathedral, a growing number of Russians are joining calls for their freedom. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Ekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alehina — all members of the anarchic Pussy Riot punk band — have been in prison since March, held on charges of hooliganism which could eventually mean a seven-year sentence.
There aren't many revolutions that have been started by wearing colourful dresses and playing loud music, but Pussy Riot are not most revolutionaries. For a start, they're women. Or devushki, as the Russians call them — "girls". And for seconds, they're not hardened activists or Machiavellian politicos; they're just a bunch of highly-educated, articulate young women who possess perhaps the greatest political weapon of all: the uncorrupted idealism of youth. Three weeks ago, I met three unimprisoned members of the group on the eve of the trial opening. While they talked interestingly about all sorts of things — the church, the state, feminism, art — what struck me above and beyond anything else was simply how funny they were, how charming, how — I can't think of any other way of saying this — how nice they were.