I salute the great bravery of Pussy Riot women

This week’s Independent News & Media/Mediahuis Irish regionals’ newspaper column.

Michael Commane

These days every media outlet has given much coverage to looking back on the year gone by and wondering and pondering what might happen in 2023.

In the early days of last year as life slowly began to return to normal after Covid, the Russian Army invaded Ukraine.

Yes, the world is seldom without war but the Russian invasion of Ukraine invokes in our minds the horror of World War II. 

While the West may never have warmed to Stalin, but for the Soviet Army, WW II could have been a far bigger catastrophe than it was. 

This time round the Hitler figure has taken over the levers of power in the Kremlin and it’s clear that Vladimir Putin is an autocratic dictator who allows for no opinion other than his.

What must it be like in these first days of 2023 for those who are now suffering at the hands of Putin? 

That includes women and children, the old, soldiers and yes, the soldiers too of the Russian Army.

Eight million Ukrainians have fled their homeland. 700,000 Russians have left their country since partial mobilisation was introduced.

There have been individual protestors who have shown extraordinary courage. A group of woman who have greatly impressed me are the band Pussy Riot. 

They first appeared on the scene in 2011 supporting LGBT rights and opposing the politics of Vladimir Putin and his links with the Russian Orthodox Church. 

In February 2012 they staged a performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. It was their purpose to highlight the links between the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill and President Putin. Two of the group Naezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were charged with hooliganism motivated by  religious hatred.

I remember at the time being impressed with the bravery of the woman.

They have stuck to their guns, if I dare use such terminology, and have just released a new song, again, criticising the barbarity of Vladimir Putin. Their latest song is  called ‘Mama, Don’t Watch TV’. 

It gets its name from a young Russian soldier fighting in Ukraine who realises Nazis are not the problem in Ukraine and that Putin and his supporters are telling the Russian people a load of lies. He writes back to his mother to tell her the truth. It is available on YouTube. 

It’s explicit but certainly well worth watching. There are English subtitles with it.

Putin is a former KGB operative, who worked in East Germany. He’s a wily politician.

His currying favour with the Russian Orthodox Church is a master stroke.

It crossed my mind this Christmas as we got caught up in the festive extravaganza that we are beginning to forget what is happening in Ukraine. There’s a line in the song that goes: ‘Putin likes your indifference’.

Putin’s tanks must go back to base. This is aggression and all aggressors must never be allowed win.

It’s my New Year’s wish that this war will end and no more lives will be lost. The barbarity must stop and stop now.