Putin’s Kulturkampf
The trial and punishment of Pussy Riot was the latest battle in a Kulturkampf between Russia's liberal intelligentsia and conservative, often fundamentalist believers in the unity of the Orthodox Church and the Russian state. By staging a show trial, Putin has staked his presidency on an eventual conservative victory.
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MOSCOW – August is often an unlucky month in Russia, particularly President Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Submarines have sunk, neighbors have been invaded, and forests have burned out of control. But, this August, the crisis was purely man-made – indeed, made by one man. The conviction of three members of the agitprop punk-rock group Pussy Riot for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” has turned the three young women into an international cause célèbre.