Music

"Free Pussy Riot" written on a wall at Russian double-murder

by Tyler Munro

With three of its members in jail serving sentences for “religious hooliganism,” there’s thought that the uproar behind the Free Pussy Riot movement would either continue to build or slowly disapate. Here’s hoping this latest bit of news is an example of neither.

Russian authorities have confirmed that a double-murder in the city of Kazan came within a crime scene that featured the words “Free Pussy Riot” scrawled on the wall in what appears to be blood, though tests have yet to confirm the substance in question.

But there doesn’t seem to be any relationship between the Russian punk band and a 76-year-old woman and her 38-year-old daughter. Reports are that the investigators suggest that the killer might have written the words to drive attention away from his crime and onto the hot-topic arrests of three innocent women. Lawyer Nikolai Polozov says the killings are a “dirty provocation,” though Gawker does report that a State-owned website ran the headline “People Have Begun to Kill for Pussy Riot.”

Meanwhile the Guardian reports that tabloid owner Ashot Gabrelyanov tweeted the following earlier: “If you still think that breaking the norms of behaviour in a church doesn’t change anything, then I recommend you read the latest news.”

Naturally, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s husband has spoken out, calling the scrawls “an attempt to strike at all supporters of the group.”

While religious vandalism has reportedly been on the rise since the Pussy Riot ruling (something the band has condemned, by the way), murder is an entirely different ball game. It’s unlikely that one case has anything to do with the other, but the connection created by the killer has tossed yet another unfortunate band on an innocent band’s permanent record. As one online commenter snarkily put it, “this is the worst Crime and Punishment fanfiction I’ve ever read.”